This paper describes how early childhood teachers' incorporation of pauses raises the quality of talk-in-interaction during play-based mathematics activities. Responses of both children and teachers are shown to be more contingent and expansive when conversations include protracted pauses than during interactions in which pauses are largely…

This paper describes a study of whether and how collaborative learning at the computer fosters conceptual change. A suite of computer simulation programs developed to confront students' alternative conceptions in mechanics was integrated into a grade 10 science class in a high school in Melbourne, Australia. A Conceptual Test was administered as a…

The work of Vygotsky (1987) on everyday and scientific concept formation has provided a useful theoretical framework for considering the nature and connectedness of learning between the home and the early childhood centre. This paper will present the findings of an investigation which sought to examine the potential connections made between home…