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The teacher hides a beam of light by placing the face of a flashlight flat on a toddler’s pant leg. She then invites him to find the light by asking, “Where’d it go?” The toddler answers by placing his flashlight upside down on his leg. It seems that the toddler is playing the game, 'Where should I place my flashlight?' while the teacher is playing, 'Where has the missing spot of light gone?' By degrees — sometimes imitating the child, sometimes thinking about the child’s intention — the teacher becomes more in sync with the game the child is playing. There are readings, misreadings, and revisions before adult and child finally construct a shared meaning. By slowing down to reflect, we learn to enter the child’s world. Co-construction of knowledge depends on a common understanding of the goal.

Keywords: Ones, Teaching, Child-Teacher, Mind of Other, Co-construction

Length of stand alone master video clip: 1 minute 20 seconds