Everyone wants children to become more effective and purposeful learners. How should we go about it? Susan Swan and Richard White describe in this book (first published in 1994) how one procedure, the Thinking Books, affected a class of eight-year-olds, overcoming many of their difficulties with learning. Through the many accounts in the children's own writing of their ideas about learning, we witness their progress from passive and ineffective pupils to active and reflective learners. Moving case studies illustrate how a teacher can make a profound difference to a child's life. The authors use their experience with the procedure to derive general principles about teaching and learning.