Linkages between cognitive and social dialogue patterns during collaborative small-group discussions

BackgroundCollaborative small-group discussions have the potential to promote reading comprehension, critical thinking, and argumentation. However, few studies have gone beyond cognitive processes to understand the social characteristics of dialogue and their potential contributions to students’ cognitive processing in turn-by-turn dialogic exchanges.AimsThis study closely examined dialogues between speakers and addressees regarding their levels of cognitive processing (i.e., cognitive dialogue patterns) and social processes reflecting social cohesion (i.e., social dialogue patterns). The aims were to understand, first, the relations between students' cognitive dialogue patterns and their social dialogue patterns, and second, the relations between students' cognitive dialogue patterns and peers’ social dialogue patterns.SampleThis study included 4070 speaking turns generated by 120 fifth-graders in 60 small-group discussions.MethodsStudents participated in small-group discussions, called Collaborative Social Reasoning. Dialogue between pairs of group members formed social networks, based on which Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) were specified.ResultsFindings showed that speakers' social dialogue patterns were associated with their cognitive dialogue patterns. However, receiving social dialogue patterns from peers did not always predict students’ advanced types of cognitive dialogue patterns.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated that cognitive and social aspects of small-group discussions are intricately linked, and that encouraging social cohesion does not guarantee that students will engage in collaborative and critical discussions.     

Social influences on children's development of relational thinking during small-group discussions

This microgenetic study strived to understand instantaneous peer influences on the moment-by-moment and session-by-session development of relational thinking within and across dialogic small-group discussions using an approach called Collaborative Reasoning. An analysis encompassing 32,511 turns for speaking during 176 discussions indicated that peer support and refutation influenced the development of relational thinking within (micro-level) and across (macro-level) discussions, and was mediated by friendship and peer status. Support was mainly mediated by friends and children with high status. Observing reciprocated friends' supportive talk encouraged students to generate confirmational relational thinking in the next turn for speaking. Refutation was mainly mediated by children with high status. Quiet students generated less refutation. The study documents the proximal effects of peer status and friendship on the social and cognitive dynamics of collaborative discussions.     

Development of reasoning skills through participation in collaborative synchronous online discussions

This article investigates the effect of participation in synchronous online discussions on the development of individual reasoning as manifested in reflective essays. Students from a fourth-grade classroom engaged in a series of real-timeonline discussions. The format of the discussion was based on the Collaborative Reasoning approach which has clear guidelines and procedures. The results showed that compared to the students from the contrast classroom, the students who had experienced synchronous online discussions wrote essays with more satisfactory arguments, counterarguments, rebuttals, and textual information. In addition, they wrote longer essays which contained fewer irrelevant statements. These effects of online discussions were consistent between girls and boys and between shy and non-shy children. The students' uses of arguments and rebuttals, as well as the length of their essays, were adequately predicted by the frequency of their contributions in the discussions. The present study suggests that when an online chat is implemented with an instructional approach which has well-established procedures and effective moves, it can provide an intellectually stimulating context in which all students can learn to reason by interacting with one another.     

Undergraduates’ implementations of learning stations as their service learning among elementary school students

Service learning provides pre-service educators with a context for having hands-on field experience and also assists in understanding the theory and practice. This study discusses 7 undergraduates' implementations of learning stations as their service learning with 28 elementary school students. Through thematic data analysis of interviews, observation field notes, activity designs, and discussion posts, this study presented the following major findings. First, elementary school students, seven undergraduates, and a cooperative elementary school English teacher held positive attitudes towards the implementation of learning stations, because these developed children's cooperation and word recognition skills. Second, undergraduates and cooperative teachers gained professionalism through reflection and cooperation, in terms of activity designs, classroom management, and interpersonal skills development with kids and adults. Five suggestions are provided in order to effectively implement undergraduates' activity designs for learning stations as their service learning among elementary school students.     

The Residual Effects of Cooperative-Learning Experiences: A Two-Year Follow-Up

Abstract

The author investigated how training in small-group and interpersonal behaviors affected children's behavior and interactions as they worked in small groups 2 years later. The authors assigned 52 fifth graders, who had been trained 2 years previously in cooperative group behaviors, to the trained condition and 36 fifth graders, who had not previously been trained, to the untrained condition. Both were reconstituted from the pool of students who had participated previously in group activities. The results showed a residual training effect, with the children in the trained groups being more cooperative and helpful than their untrained peers.     

Learning and Teaching Positive Guidance Skills: Lessons from Early Childhood Practicum Students

Empirical studies of early childhood educators' experiences with learning and implementing positive guidance skills are absent from the extant literature. This study explored this topic with 63 junior and senior level university students who were involved in concurrent instructional lecture and practicum experiences. Participants defined “positive guidance” diversely with definitions ranging from accurate to inaccurate. Most participants held inaccurate or somewhat inaccurate definitions both before and after class. Participants considered several positive guidance skills difficult to master, including conflict resolution, positive language usage, setting and following through with limits, and offering choices. They rated positive language usage and conflict resolution as two of the four most improved skills during the course and addressing children's individual needs and confidence as most improved after the course ended. The majority of participants cited the hands-on aspects of class and lab as being important in contributing to positive attitudes about positive guidance.     

The Growth and Nature of Research Interest in Arithmetic and Reading

ABSTRACT

The author examined whether mathematics instruction provided by kindergarten teachers is related to children's mathematics learning during the kindergarten year based on the children's socioeconomic status and race. Hierarchical linear modeling was employed using a large sample of kindergarten students to estimate relationships between the teacher's instructional approach (e.g., concrete-spatial, interpersonal, linguistic) and children's mathematics skills. Results showed that the teacher's instructional approach was selectively related to children's mathematics learning. Students in classrooms where teachers frequently employed a concrete-spatial instructional approach learned more during the kindergarten year. Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds benefitted more from teachers who often employed an interpersonal approach, and Black/African American students benefitted less from classrooms where teachers relied more on a linguistic approach. The findings suggest that kindergarten teachers’ instruction needs to employ varied methods that take into account students’ mathematics skills and background characteristics.     

Social interactions and the mediation of science learning in two small groups of first-graders

This study investigated the nature of small-group social interactions in the mediation of children's science learning. Two small groups of 4 first-graders and their teacher were observed throughout a 15-day unit on insect life cycles (butterfly and beetle metamorphosis). The study was qualitative in nature and guided by a sociocultural constructivist framework. Consistent with the theoretical framework, inductive analysis methodology guided the methods of inquiry. On the basis of the patterns that emerged from the data, two assertions are postulated to explain how the teacher's and children's social interactions mediated the children's science learning during small-group activity. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The Challenge of Change

A large literature establishes the benefits of discussions for stimulating student engagement and critical thinking skills. However, we know considerably less about the differential effects of various discussion environments on student learning. In this study, we assess student perceptions concerning the benefits of discussions in an upper-level political science class. We compare how students evaluated discussions in the whole-class environment, in small face-to-face discussion groups, and in online discussion groups. Overall, according to student surveys, small discussion groups elicited the highest student satisfaction and scored highest in critical thinking skills, while online discussions provided the best forum to express thoughts. While they did not favor all-class discussions, students reported that this format, too, provided benefits.     

Transition to formal schooling: Do transition practices matter for academic performance?

This study examined whether the transition practices implemented in preschool-elementary school pairs contribute to children's academic development during the first year of elementary school. Participants were 398 children who moved from 36 preschools to 22 elementary schools in two Finnish towns. Children were tested in respect to their reading, writing, and math skills in the preschool spring and in the grade 1 spring. The most common practices reported by preschool teachers were discussions about the school entrants and familiarizing preschool children with the school environment and the new teacher. Multilevel latent growth modeling showed that the more the preschool teachers and elementary-school teachers implemented various supportive activities during the preschool year, the faster the children's skills developed from preschool to grade 1 spring. Co-operation over curricula and passing on written information about children between the preschool and the elementary school were the best predictors of the children's skills, although they were the least commonly used practices. The need to restructure the transition to elementary school and the use of multiprofessional resources are discussed.     

Learning to Love Reading: A Self-Study on Fostering Students' Reading Motivation in Small Groups

This study explores the relationship between small, differentiated reading groups and fourth-grade students' reading motivation. Using self-study methodology, the author examined her own process of implementing these reading groups through two cycles of action research. Data were analyzed from two different administrations of the Motivations for Reading Questionnaire, as well as from the author's narrative journal entries, written student reflections, small-group and individual interviews, and a critical friend's observations. Findings indicated that small, differentiated reading groups that emphasized social interaction and student choice led to a class culture of reading and promoted students' reading motivation. Students linked their learning in these groups to their written assignments and tended to devalue the group discussions. In addition, implementing the reading groups minimized the author's own performance gap and contributed to greater satisfaction in her own practice. These findings have implications for the design and implementation of differentiated reading groups, as well as for those who support novice teachers.     

Teacher-Directed Decoding Practice with Manipulative Letters and Word Reading Skill Development of Struggling First Grade Students

We compared the effects of two approaches to decoding on the word reading skills of struggling first-grade students: decontextualized, teacher directed decoding practice with manipulative letters and embedded, incidental decoding practice. Participants were 98 students at risk for reading disability. We randomly assigned participants to three groups: (1) treatment, (2) comparison, and (3) control. The treatment group received 30 sessions of small-group instruction using manipulative letters to practice decoding skills. The comparison group received the same small-group reading instruction without the additional decoding practice. The control group did not receive supplemental small-group instruction. Analyses indicated that students who received the additional decoding practice with manipulative letters scored significantly better on phonological awareness, decoding, and word recognition skills than students who received incidental decoding practice.     

How poor readers and spellers use interactive speech in a computerized spelling program

The ‘Spello’ program was designed to use interactive speech feedback on a talking-computer system to improve children's spelling and phonological skills. In two versions of the program, the synthesizer pronounced the word to be spelled and the student tried to type in the word correctly. Both versions of the program showed the students which letters were correct in their spelling attempts. One version pronounced only the target word, as often as the child requested. The other version also provided intermediate speech feedback for children's spelling attempts, so they could hear how their own attempts sounded, and compare them to the target word. Twenty-eight children aged seven to fourteen studied 16 words they had misspelled on pretests and 16 words of related word structure. For children ten years or older, training with intermediate speech feedback led to greater benefits in phonological coding skills than training with word-only feedback, reflected in the ability to read nonsense words related in structure to the trained words. Intermediate speech feedback also led to a marginally significant advantage in spelling the trained words. When the groups switched conditions, however, there was no difference in their tested skills after a second week of training.     

The wonderful world of children's books? Negotiating diversity through children's literature

The present paper reports the findings of a study that sought to identify how diversity (in the form of disability, appearance, and race) is presented in children's books written in or translated into the Greek language. The study focused on the plots and the portrayal of key figures. The sample consisted of 50 children's books written after 1990 that focus on diversity and target children aged 6–12 years. Content analysis framed within the interpretative paradigm was undertaken, and this resulted in the formation of categories representative of the range of plots and character portrayals. The analysis revealed the following key themes: the key figure is presented as different from the group; the key figure is often only accepted through the mediation of another character who is not considered different or an incident; different figures belong together and not with the figures that belong in the dominant group; and the key figure is an excellent character who might also be brave and unique for several reasons. Taking these findings as a starting point, the paper seeks to place the discussion about children's books, diversity, and education in the literature, and it discusses teachers’ role in developing students’ critical literacy skills in order to engage in discussions about diversity without reproducing stereotypes or focussing on the Other.     

Are two years better than one year? A propensity score analysis of the impact of Head Start program duration on children's school performance in kindergarten

Using data from a nationally representative sample, this study examined Head Start children's school outcome differences by the end of Kindergarten between children who attended Head Start program for two years and the ones who attended for one year. Propensity scores were used to match children who experienced different durations of the program on a series of demographic characteristics in order to achieve a precise estimation of the effects of program duration. The results showed that in comparison to a demographically comparable group of children who attended the Head Start program for one year, the children who experienced two years of intervention services had statistically significantly higher performance on all six academic and social outcome measures by the end of Kindergarten, which included PPVT, Woodcock–Johnson Reading Skills, Woodcock–Johnson Math Reasoning Skills, teacher-reported composite academic skills, preschool learning behaviors, and social skills. Policy and practice implications are discussed.     

The effects of group size on kindergarten children's listening comprehension performance

The present study assessed the effect of small, medium, and large group size on kindergarten children's listening comprehension. Approximately 120 children were divided by sex and randomly assigned to one of four groups which varied from one another only in size. To determine the children's entry listening comprehension skill level, subtests of four reading tests were administered to all children. Those children participating in one adult to one child instruction, one adult to seven or eight children instruction, and one adult to fifteen children instruction interacted daily for ten sessions with an instructor who posed specific comprehension questions, read a carefully selected piece of children's literature, then restated the comprehension questions to assess the children's understanding of the story. All responses were recorded on a pictorial answer sheet. Those children in the control group received no instruction. The children's exit level listening comprehension skills were reassessed by administering the same preinstruction subtests to all children immediately following the ten sessions. Group size was found to affect significantly the children's performance, with one to one instruction resulting in the greatest gains.     

Cultural differences in Chinese American and European American children's drawing skills over time

Parents and early childhood teachers in Chinese societies and the United States have had dissimilar views about appropriate art instruction for young children. The Chinese view is that creativity will emerge after children have been taught essential drawing skills. The American view has been that children's drawing skills emerge naturally and that directive teaching will stifle children's creativity. Forty second-generation Chinese American and 40 European American young children participated in this longitudinal study at ages 5, 7, and 9 to explore possible cultural differences in and antecedents of their drawing skills and creativity. Chinese American children's person drawings were more mature and creative and their parents reported more formal ways of fostering creativity as compared to their European American counterparts. Correlations showed that children who had more opportunities to draw and who received more guidance in drawing were more advanced in their drawing. For Chinese Americans, fathers’ personal art attitudes and children's Time 1 drawing skills predicted 53% of the variance in children's drawing scores four years later.     

Culture,Literacy, and Power In Family–Community–School–Relationships

For too long, educators have held diminishing beliefs about Latino students' home life. Such beliefs are irrelevant except for the fact that students do not leave their culture at home; rather, home life is closely intertwined with their learning. Language and culture play a major role in students' learning and parents figure prominently in their children's academic success. In Latino communities, parents often feel disempowered because of their limited English language skills and their limited knowledge of the educational system. This inequality prevents Latino parents from advocating for their children in schools. However, balanced power relations between schools and Latino families are possible. The Carpintería research study reveals the transformation that is possible for parents and students when the family's language, culture, and literacy are acknowledged, appreciated, and utilized to empower students, families, schools, and communities.     

Placing Assessment Into the Hands of Young Children: A Study of Student-Generated Criteria and Self-Assessment

This study is an investigation by a teacher-researcher of first-grade and second-grade children's generation of assessment criteria for integrated projects and the children's self-assessments of those projects using a 5-point rating scale. The study also compares students' scores with the teacher's independent scores from the rating scales. The results indicated that the young students believed that the amount of work and cooperation that went into a project was as important, if not more important, than the actual product that resulted from their efforts. They further believed that process skills were ones on which they should be assessed individually and as a group. When students' scores were compared with teacher's independent scores on the self-assessment rating forms, it was found that either the majority of the scores were similar or that the teacher tended to rate the students higher than the students rated themselves. The study found that group evaluations of other groups did not yield reliable scores because students tended to let the negative behavior of a single student affect the group's score. The study also found that young children are quite capable of choosing their own assessment criteria and engaging in self-assessment.