Patterns of Collaboration between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Mexican Children While Learning a Novel Computer Game

• In Event: Children’s strengths for learning and communication in LOPI, in Indigenous-heritage communities of the Americas

Abstract

To examine forms of interaction and communication beyond turn-taking and verbal communication, we examined cultural differences in 3rd grade Mexican children’s collaboration playing a computer game in groups of four (N = 256). The data were coded in 5-second segments for forms of engagement and ways of interacting. Indigenous children whose mothers had 9 or less years of schooling had significantly more segments where all children collaborated comparted to Indigenous children whose mothers had 10 or more years and middle-class children from a large city. For collaborative segments, middle-class children engaged in more verbal communication than children from both Indigenous groups. Understanding such forms of interactions and collaboration can help bring new ways of teaching and learning in classrooms.

Authors

• Maricela Correa-Chavez, California State University - Long Beach

• Angelica Lopez-Fraire, California State University - Dominguez Hills