Poster #85 - Defining and Operationalizing Peer-to-Peer Collaboration Skills in Early Childhood: A Scoping Review and Network Analysis

• In Event: Poster Session 03

Abstract

Introduction
Early childhood (0-6 years of age) is a critical period of development in which children develop important skills that influence their subsequent developmental trajectories. One such skill is collaboration, which is often used as an umbrella term to capture instances where two or more individuals have worked together to achieve a common goal (Hanft & Swinth, 2011; Lench et al., 2015). Children as young as 12-months demonstrate early prosocial skills required for collaboration (Kirschner & Stoyanov, 2018; Svetlova, Nichols, & Brownell, 2010), however early disparities in collaboration skills widen and become more pronounced over time (Barnett & Nores, 2012; Gilliom et al., 2002; Hart & Risley, 1995). Early collaboration has been related to children’s creativity, learning, and knowledge retention (Child & Shaw, 2016). However, there is little consensus in research and practice regarding the defining features and observable indicators of peer-to-peer collaboration in early childhood. The lack of a concrete understanding of collaboration contributes to the inconsistencies surrounding the ways that it is taught, measured, and assessed (Evans, 2020).
Purpose
The goal of this study is to conduct a scoping review of all literature on peer-to-peer collaboration for young children to address the following research questions: 1. What are current defining features of peer-to-peer collaboration in the early childhood literature? And 2. Do the defining features co-occur in research examining collaboration in ECEC?
Method
Four electronic databases (PsycINFO, ERIC, Education Source, and Child Development & Adolescent Studies) were searched up to September 2020. One hundred and thirty of 20,312 articles based on samples of children between the ages of 0-6 were included. A total of 49.6% were in early childhood education and care settings and 50.4% were in formal school.
Results
A qualitative synthesis revealed a total of 81 defining features which were then grouped into the following five domains: ‘Achieving a Greater Objective’ (39.5%), ‘Verbal Communication’ (38.3%), ‘Getting Along’ (32.1%), ‘Knowledge Transfer’ (28.4%), and ‘All-for-One-and-One-for-All’ (4.9%). A network analysis of frequencies of domains confirmed that domains which capture easily observable interactions tended to co-occur more frequently (‘Verbal Communication’ and ‘Knowledge Transfer’) than those containing more complex, yet meaningful behaviours (‘All-for-One-and-One-for-All’ and ‘Knowledge Transfer’; Figure 1). To gain a deeper understanding of the relationships between defining features, a second network analysis was created to illustrate the co-occurrence between each defining feature (Figure 2).
Conclusion
This study is the first to report clear defining features and indicators of peer-to-peer collaboration in early childhood that can be used by researchers to define collaboration consistently and holistically and by practitioners in support children’s collaboration. This research contributes to the valuable work being done in the context of peer-to-peer collaboration, supporting children’s social development.

Authors

• Leah Brathwaite, University of Toronto
  Presenting Author

• Samantha Caitlin Burns, University of Toronto

• Esther Yu, University of Toronto

• Elaine Hoan, University of Toronto

• Sepideh Yasiniyan, Mcgill university

• Linda White, University of Toronto

• Elizabeth Dhuey, University of Toronto

• Michal Perlman, University of Toronto