Activities of Thinking in Social Spaces

This book explores the vibrant progress of research in the social development of thinking and learning. The notion of "the thinking space" has been proposed by Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont (2004) to designate the social and situated nature of thinking. This edited book gathers leading scholars in social and cultural approaches to learning and thinking who share such initial assumption, and have explored its implications in the fields of elementary and higher education, in science and literature, with a wide diversity of population, and also out of the classroom, in the psychologists'' office or in adult''s mutual teaching. This book offers a unique overview of a largely European tradition of scholarship retracing its roots in the post-piagetian and vygotskian heritage, it explores the many facets of this tradition and opens new horizons for future research. Doing so, it highlights the heuristic power of an approach that considers learning and thinking as an active, shared and situated endeavor.