ABSTRACT

D. White draws distinctions between undirected thinking, or daydreaming, and directed thinking, which he further elaborates into theoretical and practical thinking, and a category he calls contemplation, or thinking done for its own sake. Both parents and practitioners may see their role as moving children on from the more intuitive forms of thinking, and encouraging them to become deliberators and explainers as fast as possible. Implicit in any kind of developmental theory, and many of the theories about children’s thinking are developmental, is the idea of change over time. R. S. Siegler et al. suggest that it is important to recognize that young children may believe a range of contradictory things at the same time. In many cultures adults may be even more prone than children to invoke the intentions of supernatural agents in their search for meaningful explanatory concepts. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.