Construction of knowledge among young children before their entry to school

I. Introduction

Even after a long tradition of scientific study of children and their development, not much is known about the private lives of children when they are by themselves and involved in play – the activities, social partners, and interactions that form part of everyday experiences. Most research in psychology has been conducted on children in laboratory or laboratory-like situations or relied on parents‘ reports rather than examining children‘s typically occurring everyday activities (Tudge, Hogan, &Etz, 1999). The activities and interactions that comprise proximal processes may be the engines of development, but to understand interactions it is necessary to know something about the particular individuals involved in the interactions. Clearly, although studies of socialization often focus on what parents do with or for their children, it is also necessary to account for the fact that children are the agents of their own experiences. They influence their own environments: for example by initiating new activities, drawing others towards them, while at the same time being influenced by those around.