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Child Development & Early Education vocabulary · Cognitive Development

Sustained shared thinking

Meaning in child development & early education, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In child development & early education, sustained shared thinking means: A conversation in which an adult and a child, or two children, think together over time to solve a problem, explain an idea or develop a story, each adding to the other's thinking.

In Turkish: sürdürülen ortak düşünme, birlikte derinlemesine düşünme

How it is used

A term from the EPPE and REPEY research projects in England, linked with high-quality early years practice and used in training and inspection. Open-ended questions, wondering aloud and genuine interest support it.

Example sentences

  1. Our talk about why the ice melted became a lovely moment of sustained shared thinking.

  2. The inspector noted good examples of sustained shared thinking in the preschool room.

Common collocations

  • engage in sustained shared thinking
  • extend children's thinking
  • wonder aloud
  • high-quality interactions
  • open-ended questionA question with many possible answers, such as 'What do you think will happen?', which invites a child to think and talk rather than just say yes or no.
  • scaffoldingSupport that an adult gives a child to complete a task they cannot yet do alone, such as hints, questions or showing one step, which is reduced as the child becomes more able.
  • zone of proximal developmentIn Vygotsky's theory, the gap between what a child can do alone and what they can do with help from an adult or a more skilled peer.
  • cognitive developmentThe development of thinking skills such as attention, memory, problem-solving, reasoning and understanding how the world works.

More terms: Cognitive Development

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