ABSTRACT

In sociocultural theories of learning, the importance of the ways in which learning is mediated through interaction has long been recognised as vital to understanding learning processes in different contexts. Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) has provided a springboard for research into how adults support children’s learning. The processes involved in helping children to learn within their ZPD have been described more fully by Wood and colleagues

The project described in this chapter was a qualitative study of learning processes among ten 4-year-old children in a community-run preschool and a primary school reception class in the South of England with distinct subcultures of pedagogy: preschool with an invisible pedagogy, emphasising social development, and reception with a visible pedagogy, emphasising specific learning outcomes. Multi-modal analyses of teaching and learning episodes (Kress and Van Leeuwen 2001) showed the different ways in which staff guided children’s learning and meaning-making. In keeping with the findings of the West Midlands Project (Georgeson, Chapter 10, this volume) it was found that the care and socialisation-oriented preschool fostered coconstruction between staff and children, whereas the educational outcomesoriented reception class used scaffolding towards predetermined learning objectives. The reception approach appeared to result in some negative positioning of children, particularly those perceived as less able by the staff, with implications for developing learner identities. A third approach to guidance was noted in the preschool in which a predetermined learning outcome existed, but in which collaboration was emphasised, similar to proleptic instruction (Forman et al. 1993) fostering a range of participatory positions by the children. This encouraged children’s risk-taking and legitimate peripheral participation (Lave and Wenger 1991), contributing to the development of more positive learner identities.