Editor: Viv Edwards (University of Reading, UK)
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Volume: 13 Number: 2 Page: 133–150
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Language for the Social Construction of Knowledge: Comparing Classroom Talk in Mexican Preschools
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Rupert Wegerif, Neil Mercer and Sylvia Rojas-Drummond
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This study compares two sets of matching classrooms in Mexican preschools over a period of a year. In one set of classrooms the children improved significantly in independent problem-solving. We looked
at videotape and transcripts taken over the year to see, retrospectively, whether the reasons for the improvement in problem-solving could be found in the classroom language. Differences in the two sets
of data were explored with a method for investigating classroom talk which combines qualitative interpretation with computer-based analysis. This method had been developed to explore peer classroom talk
in the UK and was being applied in a new context. A sociocultural model of how children learn independent problem-solving was also developed and applied to the analysis. This model was found to fit a number
of types of teaching and learning exchanges found in the classrooms where problem-solving increased. The method used also enabled us to isolate several specific verbal strategies which carried the social
construction of knowledge through scaffolding the pupils' engagement in independent problem-solving and reasoning. As well as these contributions to the theory and practice of education the study illustrates
the value and transferability of a new method for investigating classroom talk.
© Multilingual Matters 1999
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