THE DEVELOPMENT OF FORMAL REASONING IN COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING SITUATIONS.
Item
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Title
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF FORMAL REASONING IN COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING SITUATIONS.
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Identifier
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AAI8515621
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identifier
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8515621
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Creator
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DIMANT, ROSE JEAROLMEN.
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Contributor
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David Bearison
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Date
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1985
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Developmental
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Abstract
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Piaget has proposed that cognitive development proceeds from individuals' active and reciprocal engagement with their social and physical surroundings. The importance of social interaction results from the potential it creates for cognitive conflict by pressing individuals to recognize other viewpoints, to compare these with their own, and to coordinate different perspectives.;Previous studies have demonstrated that preoperational subjects who worked with peers achieved higher levels of reasoning than children who worked individually. This advantage has been observed during problem-solving sessions and on individually administered posttests. The purpose of this investigation was to assess the relationship between peer interaction and the attainment of formal operational reasoning strategies in college students.;A longitudinal research design employing formal reasoning tasks and a peer interaction measure provided the data for this study. The interaction measure, based on Piaget's equilibration model, consisted of five verbal categories which reflected socio-cognitive conflict. Conflict was scored by identifying a disturbance speech act produced by one partner in a dyad and a resolution speech act produced by the other partner.;Subjects were 15 same-sex male and female dyads and 15 male and female individual control subjects. There were two dyadic conditions. The same level condition (n = 8) consisted of partners, each of whom received a concrete operational score (level 0) on a combinatorial reasoning pretest assessment. The mixed dyadic condition (n = 7) consisted of one concrete operational partner (level 0) and one transitional partner (level 2). All control subjects were concrete operational. Analyses of variance and t-tests were used to analyze the data.;The major findings indicated that mixed dyads solved significantly more problems during the longitudinal phase of the study than individual control subjects, but there were no significant differences on pre- to posttest measures. Mixed level dyads solved more problems than same level dyads, but did not achieve higher change scores. Amount of sociocognitive conflict was positively and significantly related to solving more problems, and to greater pre- to posttest change scores.;Results were discussed in terms of socio-cognitive conflict being a more critical indicator of growth than subject condition alone. Educational implications of peer interaction and cognitive development were also discussed.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Educational Psychology
