Neil Mercer

A gripping expose of a notorious cold case 1978. An idyllic beachside community. A series of abductions and rapes. So what happened to Trudie Adams? The disappearance of 18-year-old Trudie Adams while hitchhiking home on Sydney's northern beaches in 1978 left her family and community devastated. When police began to investigate, the dark underbelly of the so-called 'insular peninsula' was exposed, where surfers ran drugs home from Bali, teenagers hitchhiked everywhere due to the lack of public transport, gangs of men prowled the beaches and the roads, and predators abducted and raped countless young women, crimes rarely reported or investigated. Inspired by the award-winning #1 podcast and ABC TV series and containing new revelations never previously revealed, Barrenjoey Road is the gripping expose of why the case was never solved. It takes us all the way to the top, from a criminal perpetrator with a lifelong record and links to organised crime who was never formally accused, to police corruption at the highest level.

Barrenjoey Road

Karen Littleton

This book draws on extensive research to provide a ground-breaking new account of the relationship between dialogue and children's learning development. It closely relates the research findings to real-life classrooms, so that it is of practical value to teachers and students concerned that their children are offered the best possible learning opportunities. The authors provide a clear, accessible and well-illustrated case for the importance of dialogue in children's intellectual development and support this with a new and more educationally relevant version of socio-cultural theory, which explains the fascinating relationship between dialogues and learning. In educational terms, a sociocultural theory that relates social, cultural and historical processes, interpersonal communication and applied linguistics, is an ideal way of explaining how school experience helps children learn and develop. By using evidence of how the collective construction of knowledge is achieved and how engagement in dialogues shapes children's educational progress and intellectual development, the authors provide a text which is essential for educational researchers, postgraduate students of education and teachers, and is also of interest to many psychologists and applied linguists.

A Sociocultural Approach

Dialogue and the Development of Children's Thinking

Rupert Wegerif

Louis Major

The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Dialogic Education provides a comprehensive overview of the main ideas and themes that make up the exciting and diverse field of Dialogic Education. With contributions from the world’s leading researchers, it describes underpinning theoretical approaches, debates, methodologies, evidence of impact, how Dialogic Education relates to different areas of the curriculum and ways in which work in this field responds to the profound educational challenges of our time. The handbook is divided into seven sections, covering: The theory of Dialogic Education Classroom dialogue Dialogue, teachers and professional development Dialogic Education for literacy and language Dialogic Education and digital technology Dialogic Education in science and mathematics Dialogic Education for transformative purposes Expertly written and researched, the handbook marks the coming of age of Dialogic Education as an important and distinctive area of applied educational research. Featuring chapters from authors working in different educational contexts around the world, the handbook is of international relevance and provides an invaluable resource for researchers and students concerned with the study of educational dialogue and allied areas of socio-cultural research. It will interest students on PhD programmes in Education Faculties, Master's level courses in Education and postgraduate teacher-training courses. The accounts of results achieved by high-impact research projects around the world will also be very valuable for policy makers and practitioners.

The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Dialogic Education

Words and Minds takes a lively and accessible look at the evolution of language and how we use language in joint activities.

How We Use Language to Think Together

Words and Minds

Joan Swann

English is learnt, internationally, in a range of diverse settings. This book examines processes of language acquisition in English, as well as what it means to learn English in different parts of the world. It looks at the place of English within formal education, and at some of the controversies that have surrounded the teaching of English.

Development and Diversity

Learning English

Through analyzing talk which goes on in primary school classrooms and some other locations, this text explains the process of teaching and learning as a social, communicative activity. It contains transcribed episodes of speech between learners and teachers, and learners to learners. The concepts described should be useful for teachers concerned with the quality of education in their classrooms.

Talk Amongst Teachers and Learners

The Guided Construction of Knowledge

Lyn Dawes

Thinking Together

Janet Maybin

In this book, writers from a range of academic disciplines examine a wide variety of text and discourse: from everyday conversation to the literary canon.

Using English from Conversation to Canon

Words and Minds takes a lively and accessible look at how we use language to combine our mental resources and get things done. Examining everyday language and drawing on a wide range of research, but always with a light style, Neil Mercer provides a unified account of the relationship between thought and language. Mercer analyses real-life examples of language being used effectively, or otherwise, in many different settings, including workplaces and schools, the home, the internet and the courtroom, and offers practical insights into how we might improve our communication skills. Words and Minds will appeal to anyone interested in language and the psychology of everyday life.

Steve Hodgkinson

Selected as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine, January 2010 Classroom talk, by which children make sense of what their peers and teachers mean, is the most important educational tool for guiding the development of understanding and for jointly constructing knowledge. So what practical steps can teachers take to develop effective classroom interaction? Bringing together leading international researchers and drawing on the pioneering work of Douglas Barnes, this book considers ways of improving classroom talk. Chapters cover: - classroom communication and managing social relations; - talk in science classrooms; - using critical conversations in studying literature; - exploratory talk and thinking skills; - talking to learn and learning to talk in the mathematics classroom; - the 'emerging pedagogy' of the spoken word. With an accessible blend of theory, research and practice, the book will be a valuable resource for teachers, teacher-trainers, policy makers, researchers and students.

Inspired by the Work of Douglas Barnes

Exploring Talk in School

In the World Library of Educationalists series, international experts themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces – extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and practical contributions – so the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers will be able to follow the themes and strands and see how their work contributes to the development of the field. Language and the Joint Creation of Knowledge draws on the most prominent writing of Neil Mercer, covering his ground-breaking and critically acclaimed work on the role of talk in education, and on the relationship between spoken language and cognition. The text explores key themes, relating theoretical ideas to research evidence and to practical educational situations that improve children’s lives. Offering students and researchers a clear, accessible and up-to-date account of a sociocultural perspective on the relationship between spoken language and cognition, it explains one of the key themes in Neil Mercer’s work – that humans have uniquely evolved the capacity to think together, or ‘interthink’. Offering a crucial insight into the work of Neil Mercer, this selection showcases why his approach has become the dominant paradigm in educational research, and why it is increasingly influential in the psychology of teaching and learning. This unique collection of published articles and chapters, which represent the key themes and range of his research over the last 40 years, will be of interest to all followers of his work and any reader interested in the role of language in education.

The selected works of Neil Mercer

Language and the Joint Creation of Knowledge

Bringing together leading international researchers and drawing on the pioneering work of Douglas Barnes, this book considers ways of improving classroom talk. The book covers classroom communication and managing social relations; talk in science classrooms; using critical conversations in studying literature; exploratory talk and thinking skills; talking to learn and learning to talk in the mathematics classroom; and the 'emerging pedagogy' of the spoken word.

Through using spoken language, people are able to think creatively and productively together. This ability to ‘interthink’ is an important product of our evolutionary history that is just as important for our survival today. Many kinds of work activity depend on the success of groups or teams finding joint solutions to problems. Creative achievement is rarely the product of solitary endeavour, but of people working within a collective enterprise. Written in an accessible and jargon-free style, Interthinking: putting talk to work explores the growing body of work on how people think creatively and productively together. Challenging purely individualistic accounts of human evolution and cognition, its internationally acclaimed authors provide analyses of real-life examples of collective thinking in everyday settings including workplaces, schools, rehearsal spaces and online environments. The authors use socio-cultural psychology to explain the processes involved in interthinking, to explore its creative power, but also to understand why collective thinking isn’t always productive or successful. With this knowledge we can maximise the constructive benefits of our ability to interthink, and understand the best ways in which we can help young people to develop, nurture and value that capability. This book will be of great interest to academic researchers, postgraduates and undergraduates on Education and Psychology courses and to practicing teachers. It will also appeal to anyone with an interest in language, creativity and the role of psychology in everyday life.

Interthinking: Putting Talk to Work

César Coll

Languages: English with extended summary in Spanish, Spanish with extended summary in English The works included in this volume offer a comprehensive approach to the updating of theories, methodological innovation and empirical application in relation to the most central problems in the educational process, in three sections: adult-child interaction in family and experimental contexts; teacher-pupil interaction in the school context; and learning and development in peer interaction. This volume is a clear exponent of the vigour of the sociocultural approach, from which it emphasises the cultural, social and communicative nature of learning, development and the construction of knowledge. Idiomas: Inglés, con resumen extenso en español, Español con resumen extenso en inglés Los trabajos recogidos en este volumen ofrecen un equilibrado compendio de actualización teórica, innovación metodológica y aplicación empírica a los problemas más centrales del proceso educativo agrupadas en tres secciones: La interacción adulto-niño en contextos familiares y experimentales, la interacción maestro-alumno en el contexto escolar, y el aprendizaje y el desarrollo en la interacción entre iguales. Este volumen es un claro exponente de la pujanza de la aproximación sociocultural, desde la que se enfatiza el carácter cultural, social y comunicativo del aprendizaje, el desarrollo y la construcción del conocimiento.

Neil Mercer

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