SHARING COGNITION TO CONSTRUCT SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE IN SCHOOL CONTEXT- THE ROLE OF ORAL AND WRITTEN DISCOURSE

This descriptive study is pare of a wider research project on learning environments in the classroom that can promote conceptual change in s cience domains. It investigated the role of talking-to-learn in small- and large-group discussions about a knowledge object and writing-to-l earn in individual time after collaborative reasoning and arguing. The aims of the study, which involved a class of fifth-graders studying e cological concepts, were: (a) see whether by sharing cognition student s could construct more advanced knowledge about the new topics on the interpsychological plane; (b) see whether, on an intrapsychological pl ane, they reacted to and appropriated information introduced during di scussions as expressed in their individual written production after di scussing; (c) see whether students particularly used reflective writin g after a group discussion to reason on and express refinement or revi sion of their own initial conceptions because of socio-cognitive inter action; (d) examine how they perceived and evaluated the role of oral and written discourse in constructing scientific knowledge in the clas sroom. The data show that by sharing cognition the students constructe d more advanced knowledge and that in almost all the written texts the re was evidence of appropriation of information introduced while reaso ning and arguing collectively. The majority of the written texts was o f a reflective nature as the learners made explicit the revision of th eir own initial ideas because of socio-cognitive interaction. Moreover , the data show the students' reflections on the instructional purpose s of both activities, talking- and writing-to-learn, alone and combine d.