“horizon of observation”15andcould act as a peripheral participant to Johnny and Mikey’s pla

In this case, Holly played the role of running commentator, seem-ingly in hopes that some of her narration would prove useful to Brandon, but she showedlittle distress or frustration when he failed to follow her suggestions. The reciprocal impas-sivity that we observed across them in this arrangement was interesting; it may have beendue to the fact that Brandon was the better player and both knew that he was assessing thevalue of her suggestions and deciding on the basis of the in-game situation whether it wassensible to act upon or disregard his sister’s help.

Unlike in the prior two vignettes, it is difficult to say here who is the more“expert” player. On the whole, we interpret the learning described here as a collaborativeprocess between two players of relatively equal status

with Maddy at the periphery observing,often commenting, and sometimes entering play under the watchful eyes of her brotherMikey

Forinstance, in the Solstice Safari, a group of players work together to collect data aboutthe sunrise and sunset at different locations around the world. This encourages col-laboration and social interactions among Whyvillians and teaches them about theEarth’s position in relation to the Sun, notions of time (days, years) and seasons,temperature, and geography (latitude and longitude).

To continue in the group requires many hours of practice across the years; the youngsters must mem­orize their music; the words of their songs, and their dance steps, and they must practice, practice, practice.

Often, after a sociodramatic play, he would ask the boys to analyze what had taken place within the action elicited from the set-up of the situation.

ately from her "teacher" voice into a more excited and proud-sounding par-ent voice, implicitly praising the boy and asking how he knew what the ob-ject was.

If the boy's position on the repeated reading of the same books and the repeated watching of the same videos is anything like that of a typical 2-year old, the boy (and his parents) would have soon memorized lots of domain-specific knowledge. They would have learned labels such as firebox, tender, boiler, drive wheels, sanding gear, and steam dome. They would have ac-quired at least some general knowledge about mechanisms of locomO-tio

hough as specializedchild-focused settings, they are distinguishable from family- and community-basedtraditions in which children are largely integrated in community activities

“transmission”

many communities especially emphasize keen observation in supportof participation in ongoing mature activities.

Now,instead of routinely helping adults, children are often involved in specialized child-focused exercises to assemble skills for later entry in mature activities from whichthey are often excluded in childhood. These specialized child-focused situations—especially schooling, but also pre-school lessons and child-focused conversation infamilies—often employ instructional practices and a concept of learning that wereheavily influenced by the organization of factories, forming a cultural traditionthat contrasts with intent participation.

The teacher encourages the children to solve problems together andreflect on the process.

In U.S. classrooms children’s learning is often assumed to occur primarily bymeans of the teacher’s provision of information, in what has been called a factorymodel

In teaching/learning tasks, Mazahua (indigenous Mexican) parents used a par-ticipation structure in which children were treated as responsible contributors toa shared endeavor, coordinating with their parents and sometimes leading the ef-fort

[However, U.S. children whoseparents work at home are often involved in their parents’ work, in a progressionfrom watching, to carrying out simple tasks, to giving regular assistance, to regularwork

In the colonial periodthe workplace and the home were typically not separated, and young childrenparticipated skillfully in family work as well as community social events

We argue that an emphasis on learning through intent participation—thoughlikely present in some settings in all communities—fits especially with the practicesof cultural communities that routinely include children in the mature activitiesthat are part of the community’s daily life.

What we call “listening-in” has been referred to by other authors as“eavesdropping,” which suggests that the people listened to would object, or “over-hearing,” which suggests passive chancing to hear, rather than active listening.

Efforts to transform the structure of formal schooling have encountered chal-lenges related to adults’ difficulties in learning to engage in radically different par-ticipation structures.

Words are an important aspect of communication in learning by intent participation,accompanying other forms of communication and joint action. However, wordshave different functions than in assembly-line instruction, where they are usedextensively to describe information out of the context of shared endeavors, andknown-answer questions are employed to quiz learners

There is also no separation of learning into anisolated assembly phase, with exercises for the immature, out of the context of theintended activity

specialized child-focused setting that provided exercises to getchildren ready for later “real world” work, generally without direct contact withactual mature activity

In intent participation, words team with information available from observingongoing processes, along with articulate nonverbal communication embedded inaccomplishing shared endeavors. Explanations are given in the context of theprocess being learned

In the intent participation tradition, children who participate in mature activitiessee their efforts contribute to the family’s food or cash supply.

in the face of enormous growth instudent populations.

Children in many communities begin to participate in work and other matureactivities from age 3 or 4 (Chamoux 1986, Martini & Kirkpatrick 1992). In afarming community in East Africa, 3- and 4-year-old children spent 25–35% oftheir time doing chores, whereas middle-class U.S. children of the same ages spentonly 0–1% of their time doing chores and 4–5% of their time accompanying othersin chores (Harkness & Super 1992)

To doso, we contrast it withassembly-line instruction, which is based on transmissionof information from experts, outside the context of productive, purposive activ-ity

n the intent participation tradition, experienced people play a guiding role, facil-itating learners’ involvement and often participating alongside learners—indeed,often learning themselves. New learners in turn take initiative in learning andcontributing to shared endeavors, sometimes offering leadership in the process.In contrast, in assembly-line instruction, experienced people manage learners’behavior and communication. They subdivide the task, often directing but notactually participating in the activity at hand. They serve as experts, and the learners,in turn, are supposed to cooperate in receiving instruction and information andcarrying out assignments.

In the intent participation tradition, experienced people play a guiding role, facil-itating learners’ involvement and often participating alongside learners—indeed,often learning themselves. New learners in turn take initiative in learning andcontributing to shared endeavors, sometimes offering leadership in the process.In contrast, in assembly-line instruction, experienced people manage learners’behavior and communication. They subdivide the task, often directing but notactually participating in the activity at hand. They serve as experts, and the learners,in turn, are supposed to cooperate in receiving instruction and information andcarrying out assignments.

By 5–7 years of age, children in many communities have substantial responsi-bilities for child, animal, and household care, participating in most adult activities(Rogoff et al. 1975, Paradise 1987, Whiting & Edwards 1988). When young chil-dren are included in the social as well as the economic life of their community,they are participants in the adult world, not “in the way”

The processes of intent participation and assembly-line instruction are not nec-essarily tied to the type of activities or domain of knowledge (such as practicalversus theoretical endeavors or concrete versus abstract information). The distinc-tion is in the form of involvement, not in the subject.

Now,instead of routinely helping adults, children are often involved in specialized child-focused exercises to assemble skills for later entry in mature activities from whichthey are often excluded in childhood. These specialized child-focused situations—especially schooling, but also pre-school lessons and child-focused conversation infamilies—often employ instructional practices and a concept of learning that wereheavily influenced by the organization of factories, forming a cultural traditionthat contrasts with intent participation

Observers’ attention is likely to be quite different if theyexpect to be involved than if they observe incidentally. We focus explicitly onobservation as an aspect of participation. Our term “intent participation” refersto keenly observing and listening in anticipation of or in the process of engagingin an endeavor.

In many communities that empha-size intent participation, adults expect children to watch and begin to take initiative

Adult-child con-versation in many communities occurs primarily for the sake of sharing neededinformation in the context of ongoing activities, rather than serving as lessons toteach children about talk or to provide disconnected bits of knowledge

Likewise, in-tent participation can occur in innovative schools

Inuit men of ArcticQuebec reported that as boys they learned to hunt from just watching the menand learned vocabulary and many other things by listening to stories that were notintended for them, staying as inconspicuous as possible

We focus explicitly onobservation as an aspect of participation. Our term “intent participation” refersto keenly observing and listening in anticipation of or in the process of engagingin an endeavor

Numerous studies in the behaviorist tradition have determined that observationcan be very effective for learning (Abravanel & Ferguson 1998). For example,children can learn complex concepts (such as conservation, rules of games, cate-gorization schemes, and rules of syntax) from modeled examples, without explana-tions (Zimmerman & Rosenthal 1974).

observationand listening-in are important for all children

Learning through keen observation and listening, in anticipation ofparticipation, seems to be especially valued and emphasized in communities wherechildren have access to learning from informal community involvement.

in apprenticeships, in which there is often a desig-nated expert, it can be challenging to discern what the master does to instruct orteach novices

Also, they view their role as temporary, “fad-ing” over time to enable youth to take progressively more responsibility for activi-ties

One conversation revolved around the shared observationthat youth deferred too much to the adult facilitators in small groups.

The location of the space,towards a restaurant, also guaranteed passing traffic as well as visitors actuallylooking carefully at the various pieces in the exhibition space.

Thus, if a door is opened and someone isstanding next to the mirror or holding the mirror up to their face, theirimage will appear embedded in the picture