The popular image, derived from Piaget, of the child as a solitary thinker struggling to construct a personal understanding of the mathematical and logical properties of the physical world has given way in recent years to a view of children's learning and thinking as embedded in social relationships. This shift is here reflected in a set of readings which show the child being initiated into shared cultural understandings through close relationships with parents and teachers, as well as siblings and peers.

Analyses the shift in thinking from seeing the child as a solitary thinker to one in which learning is seen as being embedded in social relationships. This can come through close cultural understandings with parents and teachers.