Context and cognition: ways of learning and knowing

Abstract

The study of cognitive development in children has moved from a focus on the intellectual processes of the individual studied in relative isolation, as in the classic work of Jean Piaget, to a concern in the 1970s and 1980s with social cognition characterized by Vygotsky's views. In even more recent years, the trend toward an understanding of the nature of cognition has evolved even further and the extent to which thinking and knowing are inextricably linked to contextual constraints is at last being defined. Experts of international repute, the authors of this important book examine the recent literature on situated cognition in children. They explain contextual sensitivity in relation to ecological theories of cognition, and contrast intuitive reasoning in mathematical and other scientific domains with the failure of such reasoning in school contexts. Centrally concerned with the question of generalizability and transfer of knowledge from one situation to another, the contributors point to practical implications for understanding how intellectual competence can be made to generalize between informal and formal situations.