Investigating how secondary school students learn to solve correlational problems: quantitative and qualitative discourse approaches to the development of self-regulation

In this study we examined the transition from other to self-regulation by drawing on Vygotsky's general genetic law of cultural development and on Bakhtin's notion of genre appropriation. We attempted to replicate previous sociocultural research findings on the development of self-regulation with older students and a formal academic multiple-variant task. We aimed at extending this body of research by employing both qualitative and quantitative discourse analytic approaches. Ten secondary school students were individually tutored by their geography teacher in how to solve correlational problems. Every student worked with the teacher for about three hours and solved a minimum of seven correlational problems. All tutorial sessions were videotaped and subsequently transcribed. A coding scheme was developed and all instructional discourse was segmented and coded by two independent judges. On the whole, quantitative discourse analysis supported the notion of a transition from other to self-regulation in the area of correlational reasoning. Additionally, it was found that teacher regulation was differentiated within tasks and that certain properties of discourse influence how explicit student self-regulation is. Qualitative discourse analysis supported the notion of the assimilation of the voice of the teacher into the voice of the student. A three dimensional conception of learning is proposed and the implications of the study are discussed.

[1]  Cynthia J. Neal,et al.  Vygotsky and education: The social origins of self-regulation , 1990 .

[2]  L. Vygotsky.  Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes: Harvard University Press , 1978 .

[3]  M. Boekaerts.  SELF-REGULATED LEARNING: A NEW CONCEPT EMBRACED BY RESEARCHERS, POLICY MAKERS, EDUCATORS, TEACHERS, AND STUDENTS , 1997 .

[4]  Barbara Rogoff,et al.  Collaborative problem solving and children's planning skills. , 1989 .

[5]  L. S. Vygotskiĭ,et al.  Mind in society : the development of higher psychological processes , 1978 .

[6]  James R. Okey,et al.  Development of an integrated process skill test: TIPS II , 1985 .

[7]  Roger Bakeman,et al.  Observing Interaction: An Introduction to Sequential Analysis , 1986 .

[8]  A. Koller,et al.  Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language , 1969 .

[9]  Claes Nilholm,et al.  Co-action, situation definitions and sociocultural experience. An empirical study of problem-solving in mother-child interaction , 1996 .

[10]  Luis C. Moll.  Vygotsky and Education: Instructional Implications and Applications of Sociohistorical Psychology , 1991 .

[11]  M. Bakhtin,et al.  Speech genres and other late essays , 1986 .

[12]  John A. Ross,et al.  Patterns of Student Growth in Reasoning about Correlational Problems. , 1993 .

[13]  R. Diaz.  Maternal Teaching in the Zone of Proximal Development: A Comparison of Low- and High-Risk Dyads. , 1991 .

[14]  R. Tremblay,et al.  Six years in the cognitive and metacognitive life of 71 families , 1994 .

[15]  J. Wertsch,et al.  Discourse and Learning in the Classroom: A Sociocultural Approach , 1995 .

[16]  Neil Mercer,et al.  Common Knowledge: The Development of Understanding in the Classroom , 1987 .

[17]  B. Rogoff,et al.  Adult guidance of cognitive development. , 1984 .

[18]  Robert Maier,et al.  The architecture of adult-child interaction. Joint problem solving and the structure of cooperation , 1996 .

[19]  B. Rogoff,et al.  Children's Learning in the Zone of Proximal Development , 1984 .

[20]  J. Tudge.  Vygotsky, the zone of proximal development, and peer collaboration: Implications for classroom practice , 1992 .

[21]  H. Grice.  Logic and conversation , 1975 .

[22]  J. Wertsch,et al.  The creation of context in joint problem-solving. , 1984 .

[23]  M.-Mar González.  Tasks and activities. A parent-child interaction analysis , 1996 .

[24]  Barbara Rogoff,et al.  Children's guided participation in planning imaginary errands with skilled adult or peer partners. , 1991 .

[25]  J. Bruner,et al.  The role of tutoring in problem solving. , 1976, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[26]  Paul R. Pintrich.  Current issues in research on self-regulated learning : a discussion with commentaries , 1995 .

[27]  Shari Ellis,et al.  Adjustment of adult–child instruction according to child's age and task. , 1984 .

[28]  Ann L. Brown.  Knowing When, Where, and How to Remember: A Problem of Metacognition. Technical Report No. 47. , 1977 .

[29]  J. Wertsch.  Voices of the Mind: A Sociocultural Approach to Mediated Action , 1992 .

[30]  Robert Maier,et al.  Internalization and Adult-Child Interaction. , 1992 .

[31]  R. Glaser.  Advances in Instructional Psychology , 1978 .

[32]  Barbara Rogoff,et al.  Influence of Adult and Peer Collaborators on Children's Planning Skills. , 1988 .

[33]  F. F. Sijsling,et al.  Cooperation and instruction in practical problem solving. Differences in interaction styles of mother-child dyads as related to socio-economic background and cognitive development , 1996 .

[34]  Michael J. Padilla,et al.  The Construction and Validation of the Test of Graphing in Science (TOGS). , 1986 .

[35]  P. Cowan,et al.  Mothers and Fathers Teaching 3-Year-Olds: Authoritative Parenting and Adult Scaffolding of Young Children's Learning , 1988 .

[36]  Barbara Rogoff,et al.  Interaction with babies as guidance in development. , 1984 .

[37]  F. G. Dillashaw,et al.  Test of the Integrated Science Process Skills for Secondary Science Students. , 1980 .

[38]  B. Rogoff,et al.  Everyday Cognition: Development in Social Context , 1999 .

[39]  L. Steffe,et al.  Constructivism in education. , 1995 .

[40]  J. Wertsch,et al.  The Adult-Child Dyad as a Problem-solving System. , 1980 .

[41]  B. Rogoff.  Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive Development in Social Context , 1990 .