Context and Cognition

The study of cognitive development in children has moved from a focus on the intellectual processes of the individual studied in relative isolation, as in the work of Jean Piaget, to a concern in the 1970s and early 1980s with social cognition, characterized by L.S. Vygotsky's views. In more recent years an understanding of the situated nature of cognition has evolved, and the extent to which thinking and knowing are inextricably linked to contextual constraints is being defined. This book examines recent literature on situated cognition in children. The authors explain contextual sensitivity in relation to ecological theories of cognition, and contrast intuitive reasoning in mathematical and other scientific domains with the failure of such reasoning in formal school context. The authors are concerned with the question of generalizability and transfer of knowledge from one situation to another, and point to practical implications for understanding how intellectual competence can be made to generalize between "formal" and "informal" situations.