This book is about how people help other people to learn. Human life depends on knowledge being jointly created and shared: we rely on others for developing our understanding and for acquiring practical and intellectual skills. Yet most research on learning and thinking has focused on individuals. In The Guided Construction of Knowledge the author uses examples of talk recorded in classrooms and other places to show how teachers and learners, or learners working together, succeed and fail in the vital process of guiding learning and constructing knowledge. The book makes the ideas of socio-cultural research accessible to a wide audience and directly relevant to the practical concerns of teachers about the quality of education in their classrooms.