Children and Schooling: Issues in Childhood Socialisation.

Intended for teachers in training and inservice courses, the seven chapters of this book focus on children and schooling, on some of the ways child development and learning have been perceived, and on how such perceptions appear to have affected or informed the process of formal education. Fundamental to the organization of the book is the attempt to reflect a gradual development of some of the major issues in the socialization of children as seen from a social psychologist's perspective. Specifically, the seven chapters are: (1) Perspectives of Childhood: Historial Overview; (2) Schooling; (3) Psychology and Education; (4) Language, Communication, and the Curriculum; (5) Socialisation and Achievement; (6) Constraints on the Curriculum; Social-Psychological Issues; and (7) Self-Esteem and Social Learning. Three problems are focused on throughout the book: the disjuncture between theory and practice; the mismatch between the curriculum and the child; and the relevance of social learning and attribution theories, which, though important to social psychologists, seem neglected by educationists. A "rough, linguistic/cognitive socialisation chart" showing changes in conceptual growth and development, the CARALOC (Children's Attribution of Responsibility and Locus of Control) pupil questionnaire, and a copy of "Twenty Official Rules of the Schools in the USSR" are appended. (RH)