Thinking together: exploring aspects of shared thinking between young children during a computer-based literacy task

Abstract

This study considers in what ways sustained shared thinking between young children aged 5–6 years can be facilitated by working in dyads on a computer-based literacy task. The study considers 107 observational records of 44 children from 6 different schools, in Oxfordshire in the UK, collected over the course of a school year. The study raises questions about how we evaluate children's thinking and suggests that recorded discourse is not the only indicator of shared thinking. Non-verbal signifiers of mutual attention are valuable indices of thinking.

Keywords:

• early education
• children's thinking
• sustained shared thinking
• collaborative learning
• computers