The Tooth Fairy Comes,Or is it Just your Mum and Dad?”: A Child's Construction of Knowledge

Abstract

Sociocultural theory promotes a view of children as capable and competent learners who construct their knowledge through participation in authentic, meaningful social experiences. This article describes one child's search for understanding about the ‘tooth fairy’, sea creatures, and principles of physics. The child's inquiries demonstrate that prior knowledge contributes to individual learning, motivation and collaborative meaning-making that lead to expanded knowledge. The child's knowledge construction is situated in the contexts of both active individual inquiry and co-constructed in pedagogical relationships. The contribution of subject knowledge to meaningful learning is raised. Consistent with sociocultural theory, the article highlights the central roles of dialogic inquiry and reciprocal and responsive relationships in community of learners and community of inquirers models of knowledge construction.

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