Clotilde Pontecorvo

Discourse, Tools, and Reasoning: Essays on Situated Cognition

In 1990, we were asked by the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO1 to organize a conference on situated cognition and technologies of learning. In planning the conference, held in Lucca, Italy, in November, 1993, and in recruiting participants, we sought to bring together people from several scholarly disciplines, some of whom might not yet have known each other’s work. We needed to explain to them-and, by extension, to the several scholarly communities of which they were members-what we had in mind and why we thought the effort was worthwhile. The terms in which we did so were these: Recent theories of situated cognition are questioning the view that cognition can be understood independently of the social, organizational, and material context in which it is practiced. Sharing with Soviet-origin activity theory an antifunctionalist point of view in which intentionality and affect are viewed as components of activity, Western European and North American theories of situated cognition challenge the dominant view in cognitive science that assumes a cognitive core can be found that is independent of context and intention. Instead, these theorists argue, every cognitive act must be viewed as a specific response to a specific set of circumstances, and only by taking into account the participants’ construal of the situation can a valid interpretation of the cognitive activity be made.

Mutual apprentices : The making of parenthood and childhood in family dinner conversations

Starting from a view of socialization as a bidirectional process, the paper contributes to the field of language socialization in detailing how conversational interaction provides tools for parents and children to collaboratively construe a sense of moral meaning and social order. The paper illustrates both the agentive participation of Italian children in dialogue on normative behavior and ways that their discursive contributions shape the structure and thematic content of parental talk that ensues. Parental responses to children’s normative transgressions socialize them also into the language of transgression. The children we studied supply and elicit accounts from others that attempt to justify or explain transgression.

Social Interaction in the Acquisition of Knowledge

A review of features and results of a research program concerning social interaction in knowledge construction that covers more than 10 years of research is given. Starting from a Vygotskian theoretical background, interactive dimensions are considered as an instrument for curriculum change in different domains and, subsequently, as an experimental treatment in young childrens education. In particular, arguing within school settings appears to be a crucial tool for learning to reason and to explain: Knowledge domains become characterized by epistemic procedures, which are implemented in arguing, and by shared reasoning within adequate educational settings.

Planning a Typical Italian Meal: A Family Reflection on Culture

The paper addresses the issue of cultural descriptions as they are perceived and used within mundane conversation. We analyze a discussion of an Italian family about a future formal occasion (a party) in a foreign country (Austria), with foreign participants, in which they shall produce a typically Italian meal. The analysis shows how cultural descriptions are both a resource and a constraint when they must orient a practical activity which must be publicly acknowledged for its cultural typicality. Discrepancies are highlighted between cultural descriptions and ordinary practices, but it is also shown how culture (or ‘cultural preferences’) gets produced, at a less explicit level, within discursive practices, through turn-taking filtering, sequential architecture and selection of differentiated addressees. The socializing import of the discursive situation for the younger participants is also discussed, with reference to the relevant conversational devices.

Re-introduction of Referents in Italian Children's Narratives.

In this study we investigate the re-introduction of referents in the Frog stories told by Italian children aged 4-10 (N = 100). We found that for every age group full nouns are the most frequent forms used for reference re-introduction. Null forms, such as clitic pronouns or person/number inflection on the verb, are the second most frequent forms. A detailed analysis of null forms shows that children of different ages exploit different properties of the verbal and non-verbal context which can make a referent predictable. Compared to preschoolers, elementary school children are more likely to use null forms when the semantic content of the verb, or the structure of the preceding text make referents inferrable. On the other hand, preschoolers tend to exploit the importance of a character in the story plot, or the visual availability of the referent in the non-verbal context, as properties that make an entity salient enough to prevent the speaker from using overt linguistic forms such as full nouns. Our study confirms results of previous research, showing that elementary school children are more competent than preschoolers in integrating the semantic content of the current utterance into the context generated by previous discourse.

FROM ORAL TO WRITTEN LANGUAGE: PRESCHOOL CHILDREN DICTATING STORIES

This study, part of a larger longitudinal research project, examined the process and products of story dictation of beginning readers. The subjects were 14 six-year-old Italian school children from low socioeconomic backgrounds who were interviewed four times (March, May, December and May of the following year) over a period of 16 months. In the interviews, the subjects were asked to construct and dictate a story in response to a picture stimulus, to reflect on their own stories, and to respond to questions from the scribes. The products (the stories) were analyzed for story structure elements, variety of verbal tenses, use of connectives, and anaphoric references. The processes (metatextual elements of interaction with the scribe) were analyzed according to variations in dictation speed, text segmentation, terminal signalling, and indications of revision. Results support an emergent literacy perspective, provide direction for further research, and are related to the needs of the early childhood curriculum.

Learning to Argue in Family Shared Discourse: The Reconstruction of Past Events

The aim of the study is to identify both modes of children’s participation in family disputes and types of argumentative moves adopted, particularly in the act of opposing (problematizing) others or defending oneself. The corpus consists of twenty-seven dinner conversations of ten middle-class families living in Rome and Naples, each with one child between three and six years and at least one older sibling.

Modes of differentiation in children’s writing construction

In this paper we aim at analyzing the modes of differentiation in children’s writing development during the presyllabic phase that, in the theoretical framework developed by Ferreiro and Teberosky, comes before the discovery of sound correspondance. Seventeen Italian children were interviewed seven times during the implementation of research on «Educational Continuity» between «scuola materna» and primary school. We first examine how minimum quantity and internal variation rules appear in Italian children as organizing principles for controlling quantity and quality of writing, and as necessary conditions for the differentiation process. Starting from this, it is possible to find two differentiation modes in writing; aformal one, and a mode in which some type ofexternal referent is used (meaning or object features). For most children the two modes are alternatives, and passing from one to another is a possible but not necessary step. The external group (which is older) has significantly less quantity repertoire than the formal one: this can explain why looking for an external point of reference can be an outcome of the child’s formal research for differentiating writings.RésuméOn se propose d’apporter quelques éclaircissements sur les modes de différentiation qui caractérisent la production d’écritures d’enfants pendant la phase dite pré-syllabique qui, dans le cadre théorique developpé par Ferreiro et Teberosky, précède la découverte de la correspondance sonore. Dix-sept enfants ont été interviewés sept fois dans une recherche longitudinale de «continuité éducative» entre école maternelle et primaire. En premier lieu, on examine comment — dans ce groupe d’enfants italiens — s’actualisent les principes de «quantité minimale» et de «variation interne» en tant que principes organisateurs de la quantité et de la qualité des lettres et en tant que conditions nécessaires pour que le processus de différentiation puisse démarrer.A partir de cela, on retrouve dans la période présyllabique deux modes de différentiation entre écritures: un mode exclusivement formel et un mode dépendant de certains éléments extérieurs au système (signification ou référent). Les données montrent que ces deux modes sont en général alternatifs et liés à l’ampleur du répertoire de signes (plus nombreux dans le groupe «formel»). Le passage de l’un à l’autre est possible mais non nécessaire. Les deux modes sont en tout cas ordonnés: chercher un référent extérieur peut être un des débouchés de la recherche «formelle» de l’enfant.

Turn-taking in classroom interactions: Overlapping, interruptions and pauses in primary school

This paper examines the rhythm and the management of classroom interaction as an important constituent of a teaching-learning process. Twenty-three lessons in 12 classes (four 2nd grades, four 3rd grades and four 4th grades) of state primary schools spread all over Italy were observed and video taped for a total of 15 hours. The descriptive analysis of the collected data revealed a transformation of children’s and class interactivity and a change in the use of turn-taking strategies (overlaps, interruptions and pauses)_from 2nd to 4th grade. Additionally, it showed that: (1) speaker after overlap changes according to the type of overlap; (2) teachers differ from children in their turn-interrupting strategies (teacher interrupts with supportive and silent turns, whereas children with failed or simple interruptions); (3) log-linear analysis revealed that the next speaker was correlated both with the first speaker and pause duration, but these correlations were independent between them. For a more accurate interpretation of the results various aspects characterizing educational and school interaction were taken into account.RésuméCet article analyse le rythme et la gestion de l’interaction en classe comme un élément important du processus d’enseignement-apprentissage. Vingt-trois leçons en 12 classes (4 de deuxième de troisième et de quatrième degré, respectivement) appartenant à différentes écoles primaires italiennes ont été observées et enregistrées au vidéo pour un total de 15 heures. L’analyse descriptive des données recueillies et transcrites nous a montré une transformation des interactions entre les enfants et un changement dans les stratégies de prise-d+e-parole (superpositions, interruptions et pauses) en passant du 2ème au 4ème degré. En plus. elle montra que: (1) le parlant, après une superposition, change en fonctions du type de superposition; (2) les enseignants sont différents des enfants dans leur stratégies de prise de parole (l’enseignant interromps avec des tours de parole supportiez, ou silencieux, tandis que les enfants le font avec des interruptions simples ou faillites); (3) l’analyse, log-linéaire a révélé que le parlant qui suit est corrélé soit avec le premier parlant soit avec la durée de la pause, mais les deux corrélations sont indépendantes l’une de l’autre. Pour avoir une interprétation des résultats plus précise, d’autres aspects concernant l’interaction éducative ont été considérés.

Teaching Economics in Primary School: The Concepts of Work and Profit:

Research on childrens social cognition has dealt mainly with face to face relations; only a few studies have considered how children understand impersonal aspects of society such as economics. This study involves an investigation of teaching the concepts of work and profit to third-graders. Five instruction units were created and during a one-month period these were presented to five classes at different schools in Rome. A sample of 80 pupils was interviewed before and after teaching aimed at ascertaining their ideas on prices, profit and product distribution. Childrens responses were scored on several scales, on which separate ANOVAs (class x sex x repeated measures or class x repeated measures) were carried out. The results show an overall improvement in childrens knowledge, with differences that may be related not only to the complexity of the different concept but also to childrens initial levels of competence.