Valérie Tartas

Using Graphical Tools in a Phased Activity for Enhancing Dialogical Skills: An Example with Digalo

ICT tools have been developed to facilitate web-based learning through and learning about argumentation. In this paper we will present an example of a learning activity mediated by Digalo-software for knowledge sharing through visually supported discussion-developed in a university setting. Our aim is to examine, in particular, socio-cognitive construction of knowledge and argumentation by students debating a controversial question in history. We propose a descriptive approach of understanding and meaning-making processes based on two levels of analysis: (1) a topic meaning-making process oriented level and (2) an argumentation oriented level. We focus our studies on how the participants-small groups of students-develop understanding of the topic, their arguments and their interactions through the use of different functionalities of this software. Our results show that interactive and argumentative processes are themselves objects of learning and develop through collective activity. Development of the understanding of the topic through argumentation is discussed and linked to the design of the activity and the affordances of the Digalo software.

Developing as Consumers

To introduce three perspectives used by marketing researchers and practitioners to explain how children develop as consumers : o a classic developmental-stage based perspective which focuses on the progressive acquisition of economic knowledge by children o a widespread process-centered model which aims at explaining how children interact with socialization agents to acquire economic abilities o a more recent framework drawing on cultural psychological theory that suggests that children are immersed in the realm of mass consumption culture To discuss the cornerstone elements of these three models and the contrasting explanations they propose about the learning processes through which children develop as consumers To delineate new research avenues in order to account for the creative capacities of children when they participate in joint consumption activities

Socio-cognitive dynamics in dyadic interaction: How do you work together to solve Kohs cubes?

This study presents a detailed analysis of collaborative interaction modes employed by 9- to 10-year-old children in a spatial problem solving a task called the Kohs cubes. All the children were videotaped during non-interactive pre-test and post-test sessions (stages 1 and 4) and two types of interactive sessions: (1) novice children training with adults (stage 2); and (2) competent instruction by children, or competent children, interacting with novice children (stage 3). Dyadic sessions between competent and novice children are analysed in more detail to show how children share their involvement with the task and how they manage to solve the problem depending on their level of task competence. Three particular dimensions of these interactive sessions have been studied: (1) making strategies explicit; (2) childrens task management; and (3) modes of interaction and their evolution in the course of the task resolution. Through a qualitative case-based analysis of four dyads extracted from the experiment, the results highlight the plurality and complexity of the socio-cognitive dynamics in dyadic interactions. The discussion focuses on the processes of collaborative learning involved in such interactions.

Experimental micro-histories, private speech and a study of children’s learning and cognitive development / Microhistorias experimentales, habla privada y un estudio del aprendizaje y el desarrollo cognitivo en los niños

Abstract In this paper, we present the recent development of a methodological approach originally devised by Perret-Clermont and Schubauer-Leoni called ‘experimental micro-histories’. This approach allows us to investigate processes of change that often seem to be underestimated in the typical experiments used in developmental psychology that focus on the average impact of certain factors. Two dyads were studied in-depth to understand how, for better or for worse, children use elements learned from previous conversations in their subsequent self-regulatory processes. Different trajectories of private-social speech were studied through different phases (child-adult scaffolding phase and a subsequent child-child interaction phase) and will be discussed in order to reconsider the necessity of adopting a micro-historical focus on developmental processes of change.

Temporal Categorization of Familiar Actions by Children and Adults

Although it is very useful in daily life, children have difficulties to estimate durations using conventional time units. The aim of the present study was to examine whether young children aged three, five and eight years and adults are able to categorize familiar actions according to their duration, by using a new task not relying on knowledge of conventional time units. Participants performed a forced-choice categorization task in which short, medium or long target action durations had to be paired with one of three comparison action durations (short, medium or long). Results showed that as age increased so, too, did the percentage of accurate temporal categorizations, while that of temporal categorization errors decreased. Moreover, except at three years, the least frequent error consisted in categorizing a short action as a long one. These results are discussed in the light of event representation theory and the role of experience in temporal cognition.