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This collection of original contributions by leading researchers celebrates the 1996 centenary of the births of the two most seminal figures in education and developmental psychology - Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Research in their footsteps continues worldwide and is growing.
What are the implications for the future for this extensive programme? Which of the large body of findings has proved most important to current research? Based around five themes, these original contributions cover educational intervention and teaching, social collaboration and learning, cognitive skills and domains, the measurement of development and the development of modal understanding.

Jean Piaget is one of the greatest names in psychology. A knowledge of his ideas is essential for all in psychology and education. Sociological Studies is one of his major works to remain untranslated. Now an international team of Piaget experts has got together to ensure that this important work is available in English. This classic text, exploring the role of social experience in the development of understanding, shows the general perception of Piaget as someone who took insufficient account of social factors in psychology to be false.

Originally published in 1993, this monograph addresses a central problem in Piaget's work, which is the temporal construction of necessary knowledge. The main argument is that both normative and empirical issues are relevant to a minimally adequate account of the development of modal understanding. This central argument embodies three main claims. One claim is philosophical. Although the concepts of knowledge and necessity are problematic, there is sufficient agreement about their core elements due to the fundamental difference between truth-value and modality. Any account of human rationality has to respect this distinction. The second claim is that this normative distinction is not always respected in psychological research on the origins of knowledge where emphasis is placed on the procedures and methods used to gain good empirical evidence. An account of the initial acquisition of knowledge is not thereby an account of its legitimation in the human mind. The third claim relates to epistemology. Intellectual development is a process in which available knowledge is used in the construction of better knowledge. The monograph identifies features of a modal model of intellectual construction, whereby some form of necessary knowledge is always used. Intellectual development occurs as the reduction of modal errors through the differentiation and coordination of available forms of modal understanding. Piaget's work continues to provide distinctive and intelligible answers to a substantive and outstanding problem.

Originally published in 1993, this monograph addresses a central problem in Piaget's work, which is the temporal construction of necessary knowledge. The main argument is that both normative and empirical issues are relevant to a minimally adequate account of the development of modal understanding. This central argument embodies three main claims. One claim is philosophical. Although the concepts of knowledge and necessity are problematic, there is sufficient agreement about their core elements due to the fundamental difference between truth-value and modality. Any account of human rationality has to respect this distinction. The second claim is that this normative distinction is not always respected in psychological research on the origins of knowledge where emphasis is placed on the procedures and methods used to gain good empirical evidence. An account of the initial acquisition of knowledge is not thereby an account of its legitimation in the human mind. The third claim relates to epistemology. Intellectual development is a process in which available knowledge is used in the construction of better knowledge. The monograph identifies features of a modal model of intellectual construction, whereby some form of necessary knowledge is always used. Intellectual development occurs as the reduction of modal errors through the differentiation and coordination of available forms of modal understanding. Piaget's work continues to provide distinctive and intelligible answers to a substantive and outstanding problem.

Full Contributors:
Professor Michael Beveridge, University of Bristol; Professor Michael Shayer, University of Cambridge; Dr. Gerard Duveen, University of Cambridge; Professor A.N. Perret-Clermont, Universite de Neuchatel, Switzerland; Professor Peter Bryant, University of Oxford; Professor Lauren Resnick, University of Pittsburg, USA; Dr. Trevor Bond, James Cook University, Australia; Dr. Margaret Chalmers, University of Edinburgh; Dr. Brendan McGonigle, University of Edinburgh; Dr. Paul Harris, University of Oxford; Professor Deanna Kuhn, Columbia University, USA; Dr. Julie Dockrell, Institute of Education, London; Dr. P. Tomlinson, University of Leeds; Dr. R. Campbell, Stirling University; Dr. Gerry Finn Strathclyde University; Dr. Jon Ridgeway, Lancaster University; Professor Kathy Sylva, Institute of Education, London

Jean Piaget is one of the greatest names in psychology. A knowledge of his ideas is essential for all in psychology and education. Sociological Studies is one of his major works to remain untranslated. Now an international team of Piaget experts has got together to ensure that this important work is available in English.
This classic text, exploring the role of social experience in the development of understanding, shows the general perception of Piaget as someone who took insufficient account of social factors in psychology to be false.

First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Among the many conceits of modern thought is the idea that philosophy, tainted as it is by subjective evaluation, is a shaky guide for human affairs. People, it is argued, are better off if they base their conduct either on know-how with its pragmatic criterion of truth (i.e., possibility) or on science with its universal criterion of rational necessity. Since Helmholtz, there has been increasing concern in the life sciences about the role of reductionism in the construction of knowledge. Is psychophysics really possible? Are biological phenomena just the deducible results of chemical phenomena? And if life can be reduced to molecular mechanisms only, where do these miraculous molecules come from, and how do they work? On a psychological level, people wonder whether psychological phenomena result simply from genetically hardwired structures in the brain or whether, even if not genetically determined, they can be identified with the biochemical processes of that organ. In sociology, identical questions arise. If physical or chemical reduction is not practicable, should we think in terms of other forms of reduction, say, the reduction of psychological to sociological phenomena or in terms of what Piaget has called the "reduction of the lower to the higher" (e.g., teleology)? All in all, then, reductionism in both naive and sophisticated forms permeates all of human thought and may, at least in certain cases, be necessary to it. If so, what exactly are those cases? The papers collected in this volume are all derived from the 29th Annual Symposium of the Jean Piaget Society. The intent of the volume is to examine the issue of reductionism on the theoretical level in several sciences, including biology, psychology, and sociology. A complementary intent is to examine it from the point of view of the practical effects of reductionistic doctrine on daily life.

Among the many conceits of modern thought is the idea that philosophy, tainted as it is by subjective evaluation, is a shaky guide for human affairs. People, it is argued, are better off if they base their conduct either on know-how with its pragmatic criterion of truth (i.e., possibility) or on science with its universal criterion of rational necessity.

Since Helmholtz, there has been increasing concern in the life sciences about the role of reductionism in the construction of knowledge. Is psychophysics really possible? Are biological phenomena just the deducible results of chemical phenomena? And if life can be reduced to molecular mechanisms only, where do these miraculous molecules come from, and how do they work? On a psychological level, people wonder whether psychological phenomena result simply from genetically hardwired structures in the brain or whether, even if not genetically determined, they can be identified with the biochemical processes of that organ. In sociology, identical questions arise.

If physical or chemical reduction is not practicable, should we think in terms of other forms of reduction, say, the reduction of psychological to sociological phenomena or in terms of what Piaget has called the "reduction of the lower to the higher" (e.g., teleology)? All in all, then, reductionism in both naive and sophisticated forms permeates all of human thought and may, at least in certain cases, be necessary to it. If so, what exactly are those cases?

The papers collected in this volume are all derived from the 29th Annual Symposium of the Jean Piaget Society. The intent of the volume is to examine the issue of reductionism on the theoretical level in several sciences, including biology, psychology, and sociology. A complementary intent is to examine it from the point of view of the practical effects of reductionistic doctrine on daily life.

This textbook describes the field of radio and television in the United States, presents the material in a manner the reader can grasp and enjoy, and makes the book useful for the classroom teacher. Written for adaptation to individual teaching situations, the book is divided by subject matter into logical chapter divisions that can be assigned in the order appropriate for specific course students. Each chapter stands by itself, but the book is also an integrated whole. It is easy to understand at first reading, by beginning radio-television majors or nonmajor elective students alike. To give readers a complete picture of the field, subjects such as ethics, careers, and rivals to U.S. commercial radio and television are included.

This textbook describes the field of radio and television in the United States, presents the material in a manner the reader can grasp and enjoy, and makes the book useful for the classroom teacher.
Written for adaptation to individual teaching situations, the book is divided by subject matter into logical chapter divisions that can be assigned in the order appropriate for specific course students. Each chapter stands by itself, but the book is also an integrated whole. It is easy to understand at first reading, by beginning radio-television majors or nonmajor elective students alike. To give readers a complete picture of the field, subjects such as ethics, careers, and rivals to U.S. commercial radio and television are included.

A study of the popular modern dramatists and the continuity of the farce tradition from Pinero to Travers, the Whitehall team and Orton which examines and questions some of the common assumptions about its nature. Farce techniques are shown to be increasingly used in serious drama.

In the winter of 1948, a post-war darkness felled Britain and happiness, like sweets, was tightly rationed. So begins Harry Leslie Smith's bitter-sweet memoir: The Empress of Australia which depicts life in post-war Yorkshire. Recently demobbed from the RAF, Smith and his German war bride must try to adjust to a civilian society that is scarred from not only the war but the harsh reality of living in peacetime Britain. At first, Harry Leslie Smith finds himself ill equipped for this brave new world where Britain has lost its empire and is bankrupt. Yet, like so many other returning veterans from the Second World War, Smith stumbled onwards through the era known as the "Age of Austerity" to confront the horrors of his childhood and the innate injustice of a society divided by class. Harry Leslie Smith sketches a real, sometimes amusing and sometimes melancholic portrait of Britain in the late 1940s. In his book, Smith speaks for all generations who have faced untold hardships in their quest for dignity and purpose during times of financial, political and familial upheaval. The Empress of Australia is a personal history of one man's journey towards self discovery and freedom from row house Britain. Sometimes, after the war, peace is the hardest battle to survive.

Teenage motherhood is often accompanied by social issues, such as lower educational levels, higher rates of poverty, and other poorer life outcomes in children of teenage mothers. Among developed countries, the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand have the highest levels of teenage pregnancy. This captivating memoir is a collection of stories from thirteen women from the US and the UK who have endured and persevered through teenage pregnancy. Their stories are passionate, powerful and life-affirming. Readers will be amazed by the resiliency and maturity displayed by these women at young ages. Their stories are full of encouragement and hope for anyone facing difficult life circumstances. The bonus section of the book features three stories written by the adult children of former teenage mothers. Their stories are equally as powerful.

To say that Harry Smith was born under an unlucky star would be an understatement. Born in England in 1923, Smith chronicles the tragic story of his early life in this first volume of his memoirs. He presents his family's early history-their misfortunes and their experiences of enduring betrayal, inhumane poverty, infidelity, and abandonment. 1923: A Memoir presents the story of a life lyrically described, capturing a time both before and during World War II when personal survival was dependent upon luck and guile. During this time, failure insured either a trip to the workhouse or burial in a common grave. Brutally honest, Smith's story plummets to the depths of tragedy and flies up to the summit of mirth and wonder, portraying real people in an uncompromising, unflinching voice. 1923: A Memoir tells of a time and place when life, full of raw emotion, was never so real. The sky is clear. I am in the back of a truck, in a long convoy of vehicles. We are moving like an enormous centipede up a two lane road. There are 15 men in each lorry. Woodbine cigarettes and Capstans dangle from our mouths. The straps to our tin helmets hang loosely around our chins. We are cocksure and unafraid. We are survivors and conquerors pushing our way through northern Germany. Opposite our convoy, there is an endless procession of refugees. They are pushing their scant possessions in hand carts or dragging along worn luggage with ropes wrapped around them. The procession contained men and women, the young and the old. Thin, cadaverous horses followed the throng dragging their hoofs in the thin soil beside the road. The jetsam was a mixture of forced labourers, ex prisoners, ex concentration camp inmates and the Diaspora from Germany's eastern provinces. They were all moving southward, as if believing that their homes still existed or that they still had relatives alive to give them shelter. If the Netherlands and Belgium were any example to me, there was little left of Europe. What had not been bombed had been looted and what had not been looted had been burned to the ground.