Michèle Grossen

Negotiating the meaning of questions in didactic and experimental contracts

In recent years, the notion of communication contract has stimulated a lot of research in social developmental psychology as well as in education. This article presents two series of investigations using different methods for the study of the didactic and experimental contracts. The discussion focuses on some theoretical issues raised by these studies: the risk of sociological vs psychological reductionism, the risk of neglecting the specificity of cognitive activity and the risk of reifying the notion of context. Possible developments for future research will be suggested. The problem of the articulation between social, institutional and interactional contexts in the study of cognitive activity is a central argument.

Interaction Analysis and Psychology: A Dialogical Perspective

Interaction analysis is not a prerogative of any discipline in social sciences. It has its own history within each disciplinary field and is related to specific research objects. From the standpoint of psychology, this article first draws upon a distinction between factorial and dialogical conceptions of interaction. It then briefly presents the basis of a dialogical approach in psychology and focuses upon four basic assumptions. Each of them is examined on a theoretical and on a methodological level with a leading question: to what extent is it possible to develop analytical tools that are fully coherent with dialogical assumptions? The conclusion stresses the difficulty of developing methodological tools that are fully consistent with dialogical assumptions and argues that there is an unavoidable tension between accounting for the complexity of an interaction and using methodological tools which necessarily “monologise” this complexity.

Dialogism and dialogicality in the study of the self

This article stems from the statement that dialogical approaches to a study of the self face a double challenge: that of developing a conception of the self that both avoids social reductionism and accounts for the stability of the self. In discussing this double challenge, we identify three much debated issues: (a) To what does the notion of “Alter” exactly refer? (b) How could we conceptualize the fact that Subject–Alter interactions are not only interpersonal but entail larger social entities, in particular institutions? (c)What importance should we attach to the materiality of objects? We discuss these three questions from two standpoints – that of linguistics and that of psychology – and illustrate our theoretical proposals with an analysis of an excerpt taken from a focus–group discussion. In conclusion, we argue that the dialogism of discourse provides us with some clues about the dialogicality of the mind, whereas the latter invites us to develop a theory showing the importance of interactions in the construction of the self, to pay more attention to the transpersonal dimension of the social, and to consider that the material world contributes to the construction of the self.

Problems in assessment of learning: The social construction of questions and answers in the scholastic context

Abstract This chapter analyses the actualization of knowledge by the child when questioned by an adult (teacher or researcher, for example). We first examine the situation of questioning between teacher and pupils and then compare this to (1) interactions between an experimenter and a pupil concerning scholastic knowledge in order to analyze the impact of the interaction context and the adult interlocutor and (2) the childs display of competencies in psychological testing interviews to study the articulation of the object of discourse.

Theoretical and Methodological consequences of a change in the unit of analysis for the study of peer interactions in a problem solving situation

After a brief description of how the psycho-social and social-cultural approaches both came to consider interaction as the basic unit of analysis in the study of cognitive development, the article examines two series of studies made in the former approach: a) that the adult-child interactionsin a test situation; b) that of peer interactions in a problem solving situation. The main concern will be to examine in what way the theoretical and methodological issues raised in the study of adult-child interactions could be relevant for the study of peer interactions.

Psychosocial Perspective on Cognitive Development: Construction of Adult-Child Intersubjectivity in Logic Tasks

Obviously the concepts used in psychology at the beginning of this century were directly influenced by the then pervasive ideas of the theories of evolution. Looking back to this period it can be seen how such ideas gave a very important impulse to the study of human behavior. However several decades later, it would be well worth reviewing these concepts and either enlarging on them (as seemingly suggested by the organizers of the present symposium through the consideration of “sociogenesis”) or substituting new metaphors and concepts to the existing ones, in order to draw attention to aspects of psychological reality that the preceding perspective might cause to be neglected. This presentation takes as standpoint the crossroad of these two lines of thought. Indeed, in our opinion, suggesting new concepts (e.g., “intersubjectivity”) can be fruitful for the advance of science mostly if it can simultaneously account for both the already known phenomena and for newly described processes.

Learning to collaborate in a peer-tutoring situation: Who learns? What is learned?

The issue of “collaborating to learn” is tackled by analysing a peer-tutoring situation aimed at providing help to students with learning difficulties. The corpus consists of a six-lesson cycle between a 15 year-old student and her 14 year-old tutee who has difficulties with German.The analysis shows that the tutor and the tutee interactively construct the asymmetry and complementarity of their roles. As a consequence, what seemed at first sight to be the tutor’s discursive and guidance abilities appears, upon closer examination, to be the result of the students’ interactional work. In this particular case, the mode of collaboration which is achieved results in the tutor taking charge of the major part of the cognitive work.However, we argue that the mode of collaboration which is accomplished by the students is also a sign of the representations the tutor and the tutee have of a teaching-learning situation, of the teacher’s and student’s roles and on German as a body of knowledge to be taught vs. learned. The learning of certain modes of collaboration which might be expected to promote learning should thus be contextualised in broader social and institutional practices.

Boundary Crossing Events and Potential Appropriation Space in Philosophy, Literature and General Knowledge

Teaching cultural elements, such as literary texts, pieces of music, films, sculptures, and other similar artefacts, is one of the educational aims of a school. As part of our past and present society, cultural elements are considered to be fundamental. At a social level, they belong to shared bodies of knowledge which might foster social cohesion; at the level of individuals, they are expected to play a fundamental role in the students— intellectual and emotional development and in their capacity to act as future citizens. In the present state-of-the-art, however, more research is needed into the way in which the cultural elements taught at school are used by students as resources for emotional elaboration and developmental processes.

Interactional Perspectives on the Use of the Computer and on the Technological Development of a New Tool: The Case of Word Processing

This chapter focuses on the user’s actual behavior when he or she uses a computer. With reference to concepts developed in the field of ethnotechnology and the social psychology of cognitive development, a series of observations on human-machine interaction are reported. The analysis of these observations shows that human-machine interactions result in a specific interactional space that can be reduced neither to the user’s abilities and technological knowledge nor to the technological qualities of the machine. This result is further illustrated by a short case study concerning word processing. First, some historical elements pertaining to the development of this new tool are reported; then, some examples show the specific effect the use of word processors has in social and institutional contexts. The conclusion is that using a computer consists of an indirect dialogue between the users and designers. As a dialogue, the use of a computer includes theoretical and methodological problems that are typical of human-machine communication in general.

Meeting physicians’ needs: a bottom-up approach for improving the implementation of medical knowledge into practice

BackgroundMultiple barriers to knowledge translation in medicine have been identified (ranging from information overload to abstraction of models), leading to important implementation gaps. This study aimed at assessing the suggestions of practicing physicians for possible improvements of knowledge translation (KT) effectiveness into clinical practice.MethodsWe used a mixed methods design. French- German- and Italian-speaking general practitioners, psychiatrists, orthopaedic surgeons, cardiologists, and diabetologists practicing in Switzerland were interrogated through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and an online survey.ResultsA total of 985 physicians from three regions of Switzerland participated in the online survey, whereas 39 participated in focus group discussions and 14 in face-to-face interviews. Physicians expressed limitations and difficulties related to KT into their daily practice. Several barriers were identified, including influence and pressure of pharmaceutical companies, non-publication of negative results, mismatch between guidelines and practice, education gaps, and insufficient collaboration between research and practice. Suggestions to overcome barriers were improving education concerning the evaluation of scientific publications, expanding applicability of guidelines, having free and easy access to independent journals, developing collaborations between research and practice, and creating tools to facilitate access to medical information.ConclusionsOur study provides suggestions for improving KT into daily medical practice, matching the views, needs and preferences of practicing physicians. Responding to suggestions for improvements brought up by physicians may lead to better knowledge translation, higher professional satisfaction, and better healthcare outcomes.