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This collection of papers examines key ideas in cultural-historical approaches to children's learning and development and the cultural and institutional conditions in which they occur. The collection is given coherence by a focus on the intellectual contributions made by Professor Mariane Hedegaard to understandings of children's learning through the prism of the interplay of society, institution and person. She has significantly shaped the field through her scholarly consideration of foundational concepts and her creative attention to the fields of activity she studies. The book brings together examples of how these concepts have been employed and developed in a study of learning and development. The collection allows the contributing scholars to reveal their reactions to Hedegaard's contributions in discussions of their own work in the field of children's learning and the conditions in which it occurs.

Reviews of the first edition“At a time of constant and rapid change in education, this book will inform and reassure early childhood professionals.”Practical Pre-School “Besides advice on the most helpful ways to develop learning in areas such as maths and literacy, there are suggestions and comments about further reading at the end of each chapter, and examples of the thoughts and responses of real children are never far from the page.”TES“Innovative, resourceful and thoroughly researched… a challenge to existing and emerging early childhood professionals.” Contemporary Issues in Early ChildhoodPromoting Children's Learning from Birth to Five supports early years professionals as they develop new practices to promote young children's learning. This second edition fully reflects the enormous changes in early childhood education and care since the publication of the first edition. Retaining its successful focus on literacy and mathematical development as key exemplars of promoting young children's learning, the book considers new ways of working with parents, promoting inter-professional collaboration, and achieving sustainable, systematic change in children's services.The second edition:Draws on current research in early literacy and mathematical thinking Focuses on multiprofessional practice, showing how practitioners who work from evidence across professional boundaries are able to give strong, interactive and sensitive support to young children and their parentsTakes into account policies and practices such as Every Child Matters, the Primary Strategy and Children's CentresIncludes updated material on aspects of leadership, and on the role of the Senior Practitioner in developing innovative services for children and their familiesExplores the importance of personal, social and emotional development in the curriculum for under-fivesWorking from the basis that children learn most readily in contexts where parents and professionals are keen to learn, the authors help early childhood professionals to meet the challenges of reshaping children's services.This is key reading for all early childhood professionals and students.

In this concise and accessible guide, the authors are sympathetic to the particular demands of teaching three to eight year olds and offer practical solutions to the complex issues that are currently faced by early years educators. In recognizing the demands on practitioners, they provide new and challenging frameworks for an understanding of the practice of teaching young children and draw upon international research to offer a sound model of early years subject-structured teaching which has the quality of children's learning at its centre. Their aim is to support teacher expertise through stimulating teachers'thinking about children's development, motivation, ways of learning and the subjects they teach. These topics are clearly set in the complex institutional settings in which practitioners work and ways of taking and evaluating action are offered.