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

Tzu Jung Lin*, Richard C. Anderson, May Jadallah, Kim Nguyen-Jahiel, Il Hee Kim, Li Jen Kuo, Brian W. Miller, Handrea A. Logis, Ting Dong, Xiaoying Wu, Yuan Li

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)83-97
Number of pages15
JournalContemporary Educational Psychology
Volume41
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Apr 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Dialogic interaction
  • Friendship
  • Peer status
  • Proximal development
  • Relational thinking
  • Social network

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