In the present chapter, I would like to focus on the concept of social interaction in some social constructivist theories of learning. I am referring here mainly to the approaches of Jörg Voigt and Paul Cobb. I shall discuss the concept as used in these theories, and I shall try to show that it does not provide an explanation for the occurrence of learning and development in the classroom. Neither is it able to explain why learning occurs at all, nor can it explain the contents and the direction of development. The former is due to the fact that social constructivism lacks a psychological foundation, and the latter is due to the explicit and systematic exclusion of the cultural–historical dimension.

I shall then try to develop an alternative view of the observed interactive processes between students and teachers, one that acknowledges psychological as well as cultural aspects, drawing on the developmental psychological theory of Vygotsky.

Social interaction and development

The question of the relation between social processes and cognitive development has traditionally not been a central topic in constructivist theories of learning, especially those in the tradition of von Glasersfeld. On the contrary, these approaches have emphasized the constructive activity of the individual conceptualized as being more or less independent of social and cultural influences. For some years, however, researchers in the constructivist tradition have been increasingly concerned with these issues, a trend that, among others, manifests itself in the use of a concept like “negotiation.”