Co-Adaptation Processes of Syntactic Complexity in Real-Time Kindergarten Teacher-Student Interactions

Area of Science:

• * Educational Psychology
• * Applied Linguistics
• * Complexity Science

Background:

• * Language learning is a dynamic, bidirectional process.
• * Understanding teacher-student interaction dynamics is crucial for effective pedagogy.
• * Syntactic coordination in discourse offers insights into collaborative learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• * To investigate syntactic coordination in teacher-student interactions during early science education.
• * To analyze changes in coordination patterns over an intervention period.
• * To apply cross-recurrence quantification analysis (CRQA) to interactional data.

Main Methods:

• * Cross-recurrence quantification analysis (CRQA) was employed.
• * Teacher-student interactions were recorded during an early science education intervention.
• * Syntactic complexity and coordination were measured over time.

Main Results:

• * Coordination of simple sentences decreased, while complex sentence coordination increased.
• * Syntactic coordination became more flexible, not more rigid.
• * No significant changes were observed in the relative contributions of teachers and students to coordination.

Conclusions:

• * Teachers and students improved their ability to coordinate complex language use.
• * Enhanced language coordination facilitates co-construction of scientific discourse.
• * CRQA is a valuable tool for analyzing interactional dynamics in educational settings.