THE TEACHER AS A GUIDE OF CHILDRENS COMPETENCE WITH PEERS

A comparison is made of recommendations found in the literature for th e role teachers can adopt to promote children's competence with peers and observational evidence of how teachers mediate peer interactions i n the classroom. While the teacher's role as a mediator is recommended in the teaching practice literature, limited empirical evidence sugge sts that teachers rarely intervene in children's peer play. The argume nt is made that, given an integrated view of development, an appropria te teaching role involves active guidance of young children's developm ent of social competence with peers. Vygotskian-based concepts are des cribed as they could be applied to the teacher education process. A ba sic decision-making framework for teaching interventions is derived fr om these concepts, including teaching strategies and questions that te achers could ask themselves in reflecting upon the most appropriate cl assroom interventions. Finally, the advantages of using such a framewo rk for teaching are discussed.