Children Solving Problems (The Developing Child),New

A Oneyearold Attempting To Build A Tower Of Blocks May Bring The Pile Crashing Down, Yet Her Fiveyearold Sister Accomplishes This Task With Ease. Why Do Young Children Have Difficulty With Problems That Present No Real Challenge To Older Children? How Do Problemsolving Skills Develop? In Children Solving Problems, Stephanie Thornton Surveys Recent Research From A Broad Range Of Perspectives In Order To Explore This Important Question.What Thornton Finds May Come As A Surprise: Successful Problemsolving Depends Less On How Smart We Areor, As The Pioneering Psychologist Jean Piaget Claimed, How Advanced Our Skill In Logical Reasoning Isand More On The Factual Knowledge We Acquire As We Learn And Interpret Cues From The World Around Us.Problemsolving Skills Evolve Through Experience And Dynamic Interaction With A Problem. But Equally Importantas The Russian Psychologist L. S. Vygotsky Proposedis Social Interaction. Successful Problemsolving Is A Social Process. Sharing Problemsolving Taskswith Skilled Adults And With Other Childrenis Vital To A Childs Growth In Expertise And Confidence. In Problemsolving, Confidence Can Be More Important Than Skill.In A Real Sense, Problemsolving Lies At The Heart Of What We Mean By Intelligence. The Ability To Identify A Goal, To Work Out How To Achieve It, And To Carry Out That Plan Is The Essence Of Every Intelligent Activity. Could It Be, Thornton Suggests, That Problemsolving Processes Provide The Fundamental Machinery For Cognitive Development? In Children Solving Problems She Synthesizes The Dramatic Insights And Findings Of Postpiagetian Research And Sets The Agenda For The Next Stage In Understanding The Varied Phenomena Of Childrens Problemsolving.