School is an institution through which all children in modern industrial societies must pass, and it also has an important effect on their later lives. The authors present children's social interactive processes as a key dimension of their lives in school. The school provides a milieu for social interaction with both adults and peers and is important in the child's cognitive development and in their larger development as socially competent beings.



This book focuses on children's experience of the two intersecting worlds in school, firstly, the world of peers, both within and outside the classroom setting, and secondly, the world of teacher-pupil interaction which normally occurs in the classroom. Various theories of child cognitive development are applied to children's school achievement. Additionally, children's social competence in school is examined in terms of their peer relations as indicated by friendship, popularity, adjustment to school and aggression.