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Peer interaction : its role in cognitive development

Peer interaction : its role in cognitive development
Peer interaction : its role in cognitive development

In recent years there has been a growing research interest in the social nature of knowledge (e.g. Doise, 1978 ; Vygotsky, 1962). This is also the concern of this thesis which considers the role of social interaction as a facilitator of individual cognitive change. Of particular interest is the impact of exchanges between equals in accordance with early suggestions of Piaget (1926, 1932) concerning the significance of peer interaction for the achievement of operational thinking. 

Several investigations have been carried out which demonstrate that children working together in structured situations were individually better able to formulate clear strategies to solve a problem and to generalize their understanding to parallel problems than children working by themselves. A number of influential factors on this process are examined and discussed. These include the structure imposed upon the situation by the experimenter and by the nature of different tasks, the levels of understanding subjects bring to the encounter and the roles they adopt during the encounter. The issue of whether the efficacy of peer interaction is a phenomenon restricted to middle childhood, as suggested by Piaget (1926, 1932), is also examined. Finally, videotaped recordings of interactions revealed that aspects of verbal interaction (e.g. verbal countering of a partner's judgement) were highly predictive of post-test performance. The findings are discussed in terms of the mechanisms through which social exchanges may accomplish individual change in the child's thinking and their implications for both psychological theory and for the practical educational issues of group work in the classroom.

University of Southampton
Glachan, Martin David
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Glachan, Martin David
bb3c4cd9-c9c6-482c-a6d8-2f005c6f781e
Light, Paul
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Glachan, Martin David (1983) Peer interaction : its role in cognitive development. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis, 225pp.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

In recent years there has been a growing research interest in the social nature of knowledge (e.g. Doise, 1978 ; Vygotsky, 1962). This is also the concern of this thesis which considers the role of social interaction as a facilitator of individual cognitive change. Of particular interest is the impact of exchanges between equals in accordance with early suggestions of Piaget (1926, 1932) concerning the significance of peer interaction for the achievement of operational thinking. 

Several investigations have been carried out which demonstrate that children working together in structured situations were individually better able to formulate clear strategies to solve a problem and to generalize their understanding to parallel problems than children working by themselves. A number of influential factors on this process are examined and discussed. These include the structure imposed upon the situation by the experimenter and by the nature of different tasks, the levels of understanding subjects bring to the encounter and the roles they adopt during the encounter. The issue of whether the efficacy of peer interaction is a phenomenon restricted to middle childhood, as suggested by Piaget (1926, 1932), is also examined. Finally, videotaped recordings of interactions revealed that aspects of verbal interaction (e.g. verbal countering of a partner's judgement) were highly predictive of post-test performance. The findings are discussed in terms of the mechanisms through which social exchanges may accomplish individual change in the child's thinking and their implications for both psychological theory and for the practical educational issues of group work in the classroom.

Text
Glachan 1983 Thesis - Version of Record
Available under License University of Southampton Thesis Licence.
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Published date: 1983

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 460615
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/460615
PURE UUID: 33c8ac2a-ce91-4c28-a5c8-676ca0449cc0

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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 18:25
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 18:40

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Contributors

Author: Martin David Glachan
Thesis advisor: Paul Light

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