This book examines the implications of existing learning theories for early childhood education, with a special emphasis on Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP). Chapter 1, "Challenging Developmentally Appropriate Practice: An Introduction (Marilyn Fleer), presents the debate and summarizes the remaining chapters. Chapter 2, "Does Cognition Lead Development, or Does Development Lead Cognition? (M. Fleer), explores the limitations of DAP and contrasts it with Socially Constructed Learning. Chapter 3, "Scaffolding Young Children's Learning in Early Childhood Settings" (Alison Elliott), analyzes scaffolding within a sociocultural context. Chapter 4, "A Post-Structuralist Analysis of Learning in Early Childhood Settings" (Glenda MacNaughton), uses feminist post-structuralism to analyze the relationship between the individual and the social and argues that gendering should be considered in any discussion of learning. Chapter 5, "Children as Theorists: Developing a Theory of Mind" (Sue Dockett), examines research on children's progressing theories of mind and argues that practitioners create situations introducing counter-evidence to children's current theory. Chapter 6, "Reasoning and Problem-Solving: Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives" (Beverley Lambert), challenges readers to view the limitations of reductionist research, devoid of social context, and to consider contemporary research, which maps individual pathways. Chapter 7, "The Early Childhood Curriculum Debate" (Toni Cross), reviews research and debate on DAP and discusses the monocultural orientation of DAP. Chapter 8, "Concluding the Debate: Mind Games--What DAP Means to Me" (Margaret Clyde), considers DAP within the historical and contemporary Australian context. Contains over 200 references. (KDFB)