This book uses the paradigm of the child as a problem solver to examine various theories of cognitive development.

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• Provides balanced coverage of a broad range of contemporary theories.
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• Focuses on collaborative tasks which are carried out with other children or adults.
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• Asks whether social interaction is the key to improvement in problem solving skills, or whether it is the skills and abilities that the child brings to the task that are paramount.
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• Draws on a wide range of research, including the author’s own research into dyadic problem solving.

Alison F. Garton is Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. She is the author of Learning to be Literate (Blackwell Publishing, Second Edition, 1998) and Social Interaction and the Development of Language and Cognition (1992), and the editor of Systems of Representation in Children (1993).