engleski

Tangram - context for peer interaction

Peer interaction has high developmental potentials on a social and cognitive plan. Peers involved in a common activity trying to solve a cognitive/problem task possess different degree of, for a task relevant knowledge and skills, i.e. different degree of competence. Developmental closeness ("optimal distance") gives developmental value to peer interaction. Peers - active participants in the interaction establish inter-subjectivity, solve problems of social and cognitive task regulation and make developmental progress. This paper discusses a dyad peer interaction (12 pairs of children, aged 5-6) in the process of solving a cognitive/problem task in the context of play - tangram. The ways of partner action co-ordination and the quality of co-operation are being questioned on the basis of insight into the solitary and interactive activities on the level of sample as a whole, on the level of pairs and on the level of individual children. In some pairs, one of the children is qualified as a more competent partner that assumes the role of a "teacher" - supports partner's activities, monitors his/her own and partner's activities, modelling in that way more productive solutions for a task. In pairs where partners have more or less the same competence, peers - partners share the responsibility for cognitive and social regulation of the task. Doing the task together with a peer helps children to solve problems they themselves could otherwise not solve on their own. This makes the peer-interaction a sort of a "runway" for development of child's cognitive capabilities and social and interaction skills.

peer interaction; peer tutoring; play

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