This chapter focuses on constructing explanations and designing solutions. In each chapter, the practice is dissected into distinct and clear learning tasks that serve as process goals for learning the practice. These tasks are then examined within the context of a self-regulated learning cycle and coaching strategies for instruction and assessment are emphasized. The instruction and assessment strategies are contextualized for students in grades 6–8 and focus on conducting an investigation on the factors that influence the strength of an electromagnet. The tasks are reassembled into two case studies – one positive and one negative – to demonstrate how the learning tasks can be used by students and how teachers can support students learning how to plan and carry out investigations.

In this chapter, we draw on the cultural-historical ideas explained in Chapter 7 and Vygotsky’s work on crises and turning points in development to discuss primary and middle school-age children and how they can be supported as agentic learners taking forward their social situations of development. Support and challenge come through how environments are structured and through interactions and relationships, which involve family members, teachers and the other professionals. Key to becoming agentic learners is children’s use of cognitive tools such as literacy and numeracy, which enable them to engage with the knowledge that is valued in society and address the challenges presented to them. We explain that supporting the competent use of these tools involves taking the child’s perspective to understand their motive orientation and giving care-full relational guidance that demystifies the demands on them. We consider how digital tools and processes such as Assessment for Learning can develop learner agency. We introduce Hedegaard’s work on the double move in pedagogy and the Radical-Local initiative, which builds on Davydov’s work. Both are elaborated in Chapter 9. We conclude by discussing a cultural-historical account of resilience, which focuses on enhancing children’s agency and its importance for social inclusion.

This chapter focuses on reviewing common concerns that arise for school-age children, including but not limited to risk for certain types of accidents and injuries, nonproductive parenting styles, and difficulties communicating with peers about their chronic illness. Clinical vignettes are utilized to help illustrate clinical strategies for assisting parents with balancing safety concerns and allowing children to experience natural consequences, as well as providing example activities to help children discuss their illness with classmates on reentry into the classroom, common problems that may arise during clinical work with young children with medical problems. This section is then followed by a discussion of the formalized school accommodations that can be utilized to help a child successfully engage in the school curriculum. At the end of this chapter, resources are provided, with a sample 504 plan and key strategies when a child demonstrates school refusal.