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Open University Press

Titles appearing in Reference — Research Book News — December 2011
Arrangement is by title.

Making sense of theory and practice in early childhood; the power of ideas.

Ed. by Tim Waller et al.
Open University Press, ©2011    176 p.    $43.00    LB1139
978-0-335-24246-7

Waller (early years education, U. of Wolverhampton, UK) et al. present 11 essays that explain links between early childhood theory and practice to undergraduate students and trainee teachers. Through discussion and case studies, UK early childhood education teachers and scholars demonstrate the practical application of related social constructivist theories that stem from psychological investigations of how an individual's learning is informed by interaction with a social community, with each chapter detailing influential ideas based on Vygotskian theory, including the work of Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner, Howard Gardner, Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, and Gordon Wells and Guy Claxton. The second part addresses poststructuralist, critical ideas of power, knowledge, and structure, including the work of Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Barbara Rogoff and William Corsaro, Paulo Freire, and Carol Gilligan. Open University Press is an imprint of McGraw-Hill. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)