The Child at School

School is an institution through which all children in modern industrial societies must pass, and it also has an important effect on their later lives. The authors present children's social interactive processes as a key dimension of their lives in school. The school provides a milieu for social interaction with both adults and peers and is important in the child's cognitive development and in their larger development as socially competent beings. This book focuses on children's experience of the two intersecting worlds in school, firstly, the world of peers, both within and outside the classroom setting, and secondly, the world of teacher-pupil interaction which normally occurs in the classroom. Various theories of child cognitive development are applied to children's school achievement. Additionally, children's social competence in school is examined in terms of their peer relations as indicated by friendship, popularity, adjustment to school and aggression.

The unity between the different disciplines is a strength of the book that recommends it to a wide audience of students, researchers and practitioners in related fields. In particular, the authors have managed to bridge the void between the implications of psychological research for educational practice, and vice versa. British Journal of Educational Psychology The importance of this book for teachers should be obvious. Yet its message is equally important for clinicians and for social workers. This book should be in every staff library. Child Psychology and Psychiatry