El conflicto sociocognitivo como instrumento de aprendizaje en contextos colaborativos / The sociocognitive conflict as a learning tool in collaborative contexts

RESUMEN

El conflicto sociocognitivo (CSC) ha sido tradicionalmente estudiado por medio de diseños experimentales de investigación como promotor del desarrollo en niños pequeños. En la actualidad, existe una línea de investigación que continúa esta orientación llevando el concepto al contexto del aprendizaje formal, dando lugar a diseños más variados. Sin embargo, muy pocas investigaciones hacen del CSC el eje de sus trabajos. El estudio que se informa buscó incentivar en díadas de estudiantes universitarios el CSC en el aprendizaje colaborativo de conceptos. Con el objetivo de evaluar las producciones escritas que los alumnos realizaban durante el aprendizaje y el efecto de aprendizaje logrado, se constituyeron tres grupos uno experimental, formado por díadas colaborativas que fueron intervenidas por el investigador y dos grupos control (uno constituido por díadas que también trabajaron colaborativamente pero sin intervención y otro, por sujetos que trabajaron solos y que tampoco fueron intervenidos). La muestra estuvo constituida por 120 sujetos, 60 alumnos de ciencias exactas (Física) y 60 alumnos de ciencias sociales (Psicología). Todos ellos eran estudiantes de primer año. Se elaboraron cuestionarios y textos y se trabajó con un diseño de tipo experimental ‘pre-test individual / intervención sobre la colaboración sociocognitiva / pos-test individual’, estando el incentivo del CSC a cargo de un investigador que garantizaba la simetría de la participación, la evaluación mutua y la explicitación de las diferencias cognitivas. Los resultados muestran que el incentivo del CSC es altamente eficaz en relación a las dos variables dependientes estudiadas el aprendizaje logrado y la producción escrita; un efecto no esperado fue la mayor homogeneidad de los aprendizajes en las díadas intervenidas.

ABSTRACT

Socio-cognitive conflict (SCC) has been defined as the exchange of different points of view when two or more people are working in a task together. It is cognitive because the points of view are intellectually supported and social because it takes place during an interaction. The concept of SCC was developed in the Geneva School of Educational Social Psychology and has been traditionally studied as an important factor in children development. These original studies were made using an experimental methodology, with samples of children between 6 and 7 years old. The basic learning tasks evaluated were piagetian tasks of conservation, for example, with liquids, length, quantity, etc. Nowadays, there is a new research field which takes this approach to study the SCC concept in formal learning contexts. This gave place to more varied designs. However, not many designs take SCC as their central aspect. The present study focuses on developing the SCC in pairs of university students using a pretest / post test experimental design. The collaborative learning environment is particularly critical for SCC to take place. This scenario is appropriate for the development of SCC because when pairs are working together sharing the same goal, the interaction increases. In this study the intervention focused on three signs of SCC symmetry, peer evaluation and the cognitive differences between students. Researchers regulated a ‘symmetrical’ participation encouraging both students to participate in a similar amount of times and tasks. ‘Peer evaluation’ takes place when both students express their agreement or disagreement with the other one’s speech. Researchers also asked students to express their disagreements even if they were shown as non-verbal expressions to increase the cognitive differences between them. In other words, the intervention was not focused on teaching concepts (as professors usually do in their classes); the goal was to guarantee the interaction between the students themselves. In order to evaluate the effect of the intervention on learning and on the interaction processes, three groups of students were constituted. One of them was the experimental group which was constituted by pairs who received the intervention of a researcher. The other two groups were control groups one of them was integrated by pairs of students who worked independently, and the other one, by participants who worked alone. The sample had 120 participants, 60 students of an exact science career and 60 of a social science career. All students were in the first year of university. Post test evaluations show that encouraging SCC is effective in academic learning. In the experimental group there was more symmetry in participation and homogeneity in the learning process. In addition the written productions in this group were more complete, coherent, and logically structured than the control groups’ productions. Educational implications for university level are discussed. These kinds of results are important because they could be used as an instrument for the classroom organization. It is also important as an example to consider ways to develop (especially with the university students), skills like dialogue, mutual understanding, team work, cognitive explanation, peer evaluation, self-evaluation, and respect for peers’ points of view. All these skills can be developed with teachers who are interested in increasing SCC in collaborative learning environments.