This interdisciplinary work presents an integration of theory and research on how children develop their thinking as they participate in cultural activity with the guidance and challenge of their caregivers and other companions. The author, a leading developmental psychologist, views development as an apprenticeship in which children engage in the use of intellectual tools in societally structured activities with parents, other adults, and children. The author has gathered evidence from various disciplines--cognitive, developmental, and cultural psychology; anthropology; infancy studies; and communication research--furnishing a coherent and broadly based account of cognitive development in its sociocultural context. This work examines the mutual roles of the individual and the sociocultural world, and the culturally based processes by which children appropriate and extend skill and understanding from their involvement in shared thinking with other people. The book is written in a lively and engaging style and is supplemented by photographs and original illustrations by the author.

Sylvia Scribner's research and theory have been monumental in forming the emergent field of cultural psychology. Her studies of reasoning and thinking in their cultural and activity contexts added new concepts, methods, and findings to what many are now viewing as a distinctive branch of psychological studies. She was among the first to combine ethnographic studies with experimental studies in order to determine relationships among indigenous literacy and logical activities and their cognitive outcomes. Mind and Social Practice brings together published and previously unpublished work from Sylvia Scribner's productive and wide-ranging career. The book is arranged chronologically and includes five section introductions by the editors, placing Scribner's work in the context of her life, her commitments, and the political and intellectual events of the times. Her later, more theoretically rich writing is enhanced by an appreciation of her earlier work.

The Cultural Nature of Human Development presents an account of human development that looks at both the differences and similarities among cultures. Beyond demonstrating that 'culture matters', Rogoff focuses on how culture matters in human development - what patterns help make sense of the cultural aspects of human development? Rogoff integrates research and theory from several disciplines, including cross-cultural psychology, sociocultural research, linguistic and psychological anthropology, and history. The volume examines multiple aspects of development, including childrearing, gender differences, interdependence and autonomy, developmental transitions, maternal attachment, parental discipline, and cognition and culture.

Children Learn by Observing and Contributing to Family and Community Endeavors, the latest in the Advances in Child Development and Behavior Series provides a major step forward in highlighting patterns and variability in the normative development of the everyday lives of children, expanding beyond the usual research populations that have extensive Western schooling in common. The book documents the organization of children's learning and social lives, especially among children whose families have historical roots in the Americas (North, Central, and South), where children traditionally are included and contribute to the activities of their families and communities, and where Western schooling is a recent foreign influence. The findings and theoretical arguments highlight a coherent picture of the importance of the development of children's participation in ongoing activity as presented by authors with extensive experience living and working in such communities.

Sylvia Scribner's research and theory have been monumental in forming the emergent field of cultural psychology. Her studies of reasoning and thinking in their cultural and activity contexts added new concepts, methods, and findings to what many are now viewing as a distinctive branch of psychological studies. She was among the first to combine ethnographic studies with experimental studies in order to determine relationships among indigenous literacy and logical activities and their cognitive outcomes. Mind and Social Practice brings together published and previously unpublished work from Sylvia Scribner's productive and wide-ranging career. The book is arranged chronologically and includes five section introductions by the editors, placing Scribner's work in the context of her life, her commitments, and the political and intellectual events of the times. Her later, more theoretically rich writing is enhanced by an appreciation of her earlier work.