Reciprocal Influences of Teachers and Students in the Process of Collaborative Social Reasoning

• In Event: Class-Level Factors Related to Motivation and Cognition: Teachers and Peers

Abstract

This study examined the moment-to-moment influence of teachers’ instructional moves on students’ social reasoning during collaborative small-group discussions. Participants included 131 fifth-grade students and their teachers from six classrooms in two public schools. Students and teachers engaged in a small-group dialogic instruction called Collaborative Social Reasoning (CSR). Students’ social reasoning and teachers’ instructional moves were coded from 24 CSR discussions. Statistical discourse analysis revealed that teacher’s high-level prompting, praise, and behavioral management had an immediate effect on students’ social reasoning, with praise triggering social reasoning directly and indirectly. Conversely, students’ social reasoning negatively predicted teachers’ high-level prompting but was positively related to teachers’ use of praise. These findings highlight ways in which teachers and students influence each other during discussions.

Authors

• Manisha Naresh Nagpal, The Ohio State University

• Tzu-Jung Lin, The Ohio State University

• Elizabeth Kraatz, Chadron State College

• Saetbyul Kim, The Ohio State University - Columbus

• Seung Yon Ha, The Ohio State University

• Michael Glassman, The Ohio State University - Columbus