ABSTRACT
The social-interactionist approaches to cognitive development highlight the developmental signiWcance of face-to-face interactions between the child and more competent members of the society (Cole, 1996; Gauvain, 2001; RogoV, 1990; Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1991). Vygotsky (1978) contended that development takes place when children internalize culturally valued skills, knowledge, and concepts into their own mental framework, a process that initiates between the child and the partner (e.g., parents, teachers, older siblings) and leads to higher mental functions in the child. RogoV (1990) further asserted that adult-guided participation serves as a forum of “apprenticeships in thinking” that “provide the beginner with access to both overt aspects of the skill and the more hidden inner processes of thought” (p. 40). Thus, by actively engaging in everyday joint activities, children gradually incorporate the meaning and utility of their culture’s material and symbolic tools into their own repertoire of thinking, and further develop culture-speciWc qualities and competencies (Gauvain, 2001; Goodnow, 2000; Valsiner, 2000).
