In the World Library of Educationalists series, international
experts themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to
be their finest pieces - extracts from books, key articles, salient
research findings, major theoretical and practical contributions - so
the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers will be
able to follow the themes and strands and see how their work contributes
to the development of the field.
Language and the Joint Creation of Knowledge draws on the most prominent
writing of Neil Mercer, covering his ground-breaking and critically
acclaimed work on the role of talk in education, and on the relationship
between spoken language and cognition.
The text explores key themes, relating theoretical ideas to research
evidence and to practical educational situations that improve children's
lives. Offering students and researchers a clear, accessible and
up-to-date account of a sociocultural perspective on the relationship
between spoken language and cognition, it explains one of the key themes
in Neil Mercer's work - that humans have uniquely evolved the capacity
to think together, or 'interthink'.
Offering a crucial insight into the work of Neil Mercer, this selection
showcases why his approach has become the dominant paradigm in
educational research, and why it is increasingly influential in the
psychology of teaching and learning. This unique collection of published
articles and chapters, which represent the key themes and range of his
research over the last 40 years, will be of interest to all followers of
his work and any reader interested in the role of language in education.
