Demonstrating consensus in argumentative settings: Co-constructions in children's peer discussions

Area of Science:

• Child language acquisition
• Developmental psychology
• Educational psychology

Background:

• Effective participation in conversations requires varied interactional activities.
• Co-constructions in oral peer discussions are crucial for children's engagement.
• Understanding co-constructions offers insights into children's oral proficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate co-constructions in oral peer group discussions among elementary school children (grades 2-6).
• To analyze morpho-syntactical and argumentative-structural co-constructions.
• To determine the role of co-constructions as indicators of oral skills and their importance in cooperative learning.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 60 transcripts from a larger corpus of 180 peer discussions.
• Examination of co-constructions at morpho-syntactical and argumentative-structural levels.
• Focus on recognizing and completing/expanding conversational structures.

Main Results:

• Co-constructions synchronize thinking and acting in peer discussions.
• Co-constructions serve as key indicators of children's oral skills.
• These collaborative processes are vital for cooperative learning settings.

Conclusions:

• Co-constructions are essential for children to "take part" in discussions.
• Findings inform the assessment of oral argumentation skills in students.
• Results aid educators in designing effective argumentation tasks and assessment tools.