An effective social interaction in the classroom

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(1)Running head: Effective social interaction in the classroom. An effective social interaction in the classroom. Francisco José Peña Fighetti. A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Seminar and English Bachelor Degree from Alberto Hurtado University. December, 2017. 1.

(2) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 2. Abstract The research reported here was conducted in a small seventh-grade class in which peer interaction was identified an issue of concern. Although there were only seven students, social interaction during lesson was minimum. In this context, interest in the factors that limited students’ communication arose, particularly considering that perspectives such as that of Vygotsky’s sociocultural approach foregrounds social interaction as a cornerstone of learning. The study used a qualitative methodology with surveys, focus group and artifact analysis used to develop data. The primary outcomes were: participants’ perception of learning contrasted with the expectations of the school, there was recognition of psychological factors that limited interaction, and the need to scaffold opportunities to engage socially with the appropriate conditions for a meaningful dialogue during class time..

(3) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 3. An effective social interaction in the classroom This classroom research was conducted in a private school located in Peñalolen. The investigation focused on a seventh-grade composed of seven students: four girls and three boys. The issue that the research sought to understand arose during the first weeks of observation in this class, in which, despite their small number, students usually worked in isolation (even when asked to work in groups or pairs). Therefore, the study was designed to understand the motives that could cause students to choose to work alone during the lessons. The interest in this topic was drawn from the sociocultural a perspective developed by Vygotsky, which highlights the importance of interactions within social contexts in the development of human cognitive skills (Lantolf & Thorne, 2007). From this perspective, students would not be potentially able to engage in a productive learning experience, as they were limited opportunities to interact or negotiate meaning. Moreover, the communicative approach which is highlighted in the National Curriculum for English (2013) asserts that languages are learned through interaction, and the final purpose of language itself is effective interaction as well (Basta, 2011). From now on, for understanding purposes, peer and social interaction will be defined as a meaningful dialogue among learners (Hurst, Wallace & Nixon, 2013) The research question on which this study is based was: What factors can limit levels of peer interaction in a small seventh-grade classroom? The focus of this research question was to understand the factors that hindered interaction in a small class. Considering the small number of students, encouraging them to interact with each other should be more natural; however, for some reason, that was apparently not the case..

(4) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 4. Methodology After analyzing the context and the research focus, the conclusion was reached that the approach needed for this investigation should be qualitative. Firstly, the researcher was part of the issue and could not be separated from it (Mckay, 2006). In addition, as Gibbs (2008) states, qualitative research aims to understand or explain social phenomena from the inside. Secondly, the limited time available to conduct the research hindered the possibility to implement any interventions or to measure and analyze quantitatively. Finally, there was a need to understand the nature of the issue before designing any accommodations for the classes. The first data collection tool for this investigation was a student survey based on a series of open-ended question. The reason for using this tool was that some students may not be comfortable when expressing their thoughts about the issue in public or their opinions could be shaped or influenced by the comments of their classmates. Hence, there was a need to develop an instrument to collect data individually. Personal interviews were discarded, for the reason that the position of power that a teacher has could affect student's answers in a one-to-one conversation. MacCroskey and Richmond (1983) stated that is not necessary to use verbal stimulus to use the power to influence students. Therefore, given this, open-ended question surveys were chosen as they were less invasive and still provided a student perspective. Two surveys were administered during a period of two consecutive weeks (i.e. one each week). Secondly, a focus group was conducted. The purpose of this method was to provide evidence of students’ perspectives about learning, peer interaction and the benefits of the latter. One focus group was conducted after the two surveys were administered, and it lasted 45 minutes. The reason to conduct the focus group after the surveys was to use these as an.

(5) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 5. instrument to deepen the understanding of the earlier responses of the participants. The strength of a focus group is that even though it can report a broad range of topics and themes, it permits to maintain focus on the area of interest of the researcher (Morgan, 1996). Furthermore, the use of the focus group was helpful to go deeper into participant's answers, along with tiding loose ends.. The third tool was a systematic document analysis. Analyzing such artifacts gave the study a clearer sense of the context in which the research participants operated (Bowen, 2009). Therefore, it was easier to understand what was expected of them in a classroom situation. In this specific case, it was focussed on what they were expected to achieve, what kind of activities they were exposed to, and what was the perspective from the national curriculum on when and how learning occurred. The benefit of artifact analysis helped the lack of time limitations of the study; artifact analysis is more focused on selecting data rather than collecting it (Bowen, 2009). With this instrument, it was easier to gather data in a scenario where the contact and communication with the participants was a challenge (further explanation can be found in the limitations). QDA Miner Software was used to organize and analyze data. The methodology used was a thematic coding in which the researcher categorized different passages of data that were about similar topics (Gibbs, 2008). These themes were helpful to understand essential elements provided by the data. Findings Different pedagogical opinions present in the classroom The data suggested that was a tension between what students though that should be done and what actually happened in the classroom. Firstly, students were divided in their opinion on how language learning occurred. Most supported the idea that learning occurred everywhere, and.

(6) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 6. that someone could learn from everything and everyone (Survey 1, October 26th, 2017). However, there was a significant minority that considered that learning happened only within the school context and solely guided or provided by a teacher, because he had the expertise to do so. On the other hand, the national curriculum encourages teaching language in a communicative manner, in which interaction is considered essential, and students should be accountable for their own learning. Nevertheless, the school documents only mentioned group work, and its worksheets and activities were mostly focused on individual tasks. Therefore, the data analysis showed a lack on coherence between the proposal and the actual practice.. Psychological factors that modify how students interact. Emotional factors surfaced as a constant answer in most of the instruments of the research, as there were intrinsic motives that hindered an effective peer interaction inside the classroom. Most of the participants in the focus group referred to anxiety, fear, and selfconfidence as a limitation to their social interactions. For instance, a response from a student in the focus group: “ yo creo que la timidez o el miedo afecta en como nos relacionamos” (Focus group, November 9th, 2017) or “algunos a veces no participant en los trabajos grupales por que no saben y tiene miedo a equivocarse.” This factor was not considered in school’s documents such as activities or planning (Appendix D & E). Furthermore, in the national curriculum, there was little evidence that emotions were considered, as they were only suggested to take into consideration, “Asimismo, es fundamental el papel de la emociones para lograr un aprendizaje profundo.” However, there was no lead as to how to address different emotions in the classroom. In addition, in the same document, there was no definition of what “emotions” comprised..

(7) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 7. Classroom environment and its influence on how students relate to each other. Data also revealed a range of extrinsic factors that according to students hindered levels of interaction. The classroom environment was present for most of the participants, as a concern in regard to the number of students, “ en la clase de ingles es mas facil por que somos pocos, pero cuando hay mas se hace mas dificil.” (Focus group, November 9th , 2017) other recurrent answers reffered to the size of the facilities as a factor to engage socially in the class. finally, the mayority of the participants recognized that their peers behavior had an influence on how the interacted “ a veces uno no quiere hablar por que los otros nos molestan” (Focus group, November 9th, 2017). Showing that anxiety could also be identified as an extrinsic factor.. It takes time to build social relationships, and there are pre-existing relationships. Most of the participants considered that there was the need of time to build relationships that benefited an effective interaction inside the classroom: for instance, a focus group comment indicated that building social relationships in the classroom made it easier to engage in interactions “antes nos costaba más, pero ahora que nos conocemos se hace más facil” (Focus group, November 6th, 2017). On the other hand, for some participants, there were pre-existing relationships that determined in the way they interacted on task, such as the notion of a classmate that they felt did not work in the class, that classmates who were not seen as efficient or did not possess the necessary knowledge. Alternatively, it could have been as simple as merely because they did not get along.. There is a need for scaffolding..

(8) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 8. There was an absence in the three instruments of data about the ways students could most effectively interact with each other during the class. In the national curriculum, it is mentioned that the work should be collaborative. Nevertheless, it does not indicate how this method is presented to students, since there was no evidence of instruction in the matter. For example, from student responses it could be identified that some considered that working in groups only consisted of being gathered to work together, “entiendo que hay que trabajar con uno o más compañeros” (Survey 2, November 2nd, 2017), however, no specific roles or responsibilities within a group were mentioned by any of the participants. In the National Curriculum (2013), there is evidence that group work must be fostered in the lessons, the document suggested criterions of self-evaluation such as respect others’ opinions, assist to all group meetings, and fulfill the assigned task. However, there is no definition or explanation of what these criteria mean, and what it would take to achieve them efficiently. At the same time, in school documents there was also no clear evidence of a progressive instruction on this matter, only that group work should be fostered.. Teaching focus on individual testing. The national curriculum (2013) fostered student interaction and achievement, from the basis of its methodology to the types of assessments that are suggested. In contrast, during the investigation and in regard to the documents, the school focused more on individual assessments and evaluations. Most of the work proposed to students was individual: use of worksheets or grammar evaluations. Students also had a perspective on this matter, as they identified the use of worksheets as an element that hindered their opportunities to interact (Focus group, November 9th, 2017). Most considered that, even if this type of activities were meant to be solved.

(9) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 9. collaboratively, there was no impediment to just divide the work and then put it together in final form, whilst others did not show concern about the activities on class trusting in the teacher’s knowledge.. Implications The student view about learning arose as a central theme in the outcomes. There was a division among students on how learning occurred and what should be the interactions inside the classroom. Hurst et al. (2013) suggested one reason for this may be that in most classrooms, the predominant direction of communication occurred from teacher to students, and that influenced student’s perceptions of learning. Furthermore, students were expected to sit for hours taking notes, yet they are supposed to produce orally (Hurst et al., 2013), in that sense is difficult to think that they would perceive learning as an active process. That could be connected with students answers that learning only occurs as a transmition of knowledge from the teacher. Contrariwise, there were a significant number of participants that thought that learning occurs with others as a construction of meaning. That is to say, students that performed the work are the ones that were learning (Hurst 1998). In this scenario, Royston-Muirhead (2016) and Hurst et al. (2013) pointed at the role of the teacher inside the classroom, more specifically at the preconcept of learning that they brought to their classes. There was an assumption that teachers had the social skills, and therefore, they were able to foster a meaningful interaction in their classrooms. However, according to Hurst’s research, most teachers did not, and the best way to cope with this issue is to include social interaction into teacher education courses. That will also address the problem of the lack of alignment among teachers’ expectations, and provided students a clearer message about what is expected..

(10) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 10. Other research also supports the idea that emotional factors inhibit the interaction inside a classroom. Bekleyen (2004) suggests that the fear of performing at a lower level than their classmates was a factor that undermined students’ social interaction. Furthermore, other studies had described these emotions as affective factors. Du (2009) and Royston-Muirhead (2016) considered low self-confidence and anxiety as elements that hindered participation: the first because it lead to communicative apprehension, or the fear to interact with others, and the second because it discouraged students to take risks. Webb (1989) and Hirshy & Wilson (2002) emphasized the importance of the classroom environment as a community, and how relationships within this community affect learning. Consequently, as it was shown in the data, there was a need to build relationships before engaging in meaninful interactions. There is evidence in the findings that there isa need to scaffold social interaction opportunities. According to Donato (1994), in social context, scaffolding referred to a capable participant that created the appropriate conditions in which students could participate, in order to extend their social skills and reaching a higher level. Along the same lines, Donato proposes some suggestions to encourage interaction opportunities for students, such as simplifying tasks or controlling frustration during problem-solving. However, this demanded that the expert (at the first stages the teacher) possessed the necessary skills to discern when to upgrade or dismantle the scaffolding according to the level of competence demonstrated by students during a lesson. This can lead to students being more responsible for their learning. In this research, Donato (1994) suggested that by recasting the role of the learner and introducing peer scaffolding into the class, students expanded their knowledge and extended the development of their peers. Therefore, incorporating this strategy in this particular context could have a positive.

(11) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 11. impact in the relationships, in order to give students more opportunities to be part of effective social interactions. There were several limitations of this study. Firstly, there was limited time to conduct the investigation; this could affect the reliability of the investigation (Royston-Muirhead, 2016). Secondly, after an agreement among all the participants, there was reluctance from them to participate in the study, which made gaining data a problematic process. Finally, constant changes in school schedule forced last-minute changes in the research methodology. The outcomes could had been different without this constraints. Therefore, further analysis or use of the results should be managed carefully. Conclusion The findings of this classroom research should be viewed as a starting point for future research in this niche context. The number of participants and the particular research setting makes quite difficult that the outcomes could be generalized the to other contexts. Another use for this study lies in its capacity to open the discussion about the benefits of social interaction within a school context (Royston-Muirhead, 2016). Understanding the outcomes of the research should be beneficial to make accommodation in future lesson plans, scaffolding could be used not only to present opportunities to interact but also to make the transition from a teacher lead classroom to a student lead classroom, aiming at maximinzing students learning opportunities..

(12) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 12. References. Bekleyen, N. (2004). Foreign language anxiety. Çukurova Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 13(2). Basta, J. (2011). The role of the communicative approach and cooperative learning in higher education. Facta universitatis-series: Linguistics and Literature, 9(2), 125-144. Donato, R. (1994). Collective scaffolding in second language learning. Vygotskian approaches to second language research, 33456. Du, X. (2009). The affective filter in second language teaching. Asian Social Science, 5(8), 162. Gibbs, G. R. (2008). Analyzing qualitative data. Sage. Thousand oaks. Hirschy, A. S., & Wilson, M. E. (2002). The sociology of the classroom and its influence on student learning. Peabody Journal of Education, 77(3), 85-100 Hurst, B., Wallace, R., & Nixon, S. (2013). The impact of social interaction on student learning. Reading Horizons (Online), 52(4), 375. McKay, S. L. (2006). Researching second language classrooms. Routledge. New Jersey. McCroskey, J. C., & Richmond, V. P. (1983). Power in the classroom I: Teacher and student perceptions. Communication Education, 32(2), 175-184. Richmond, V. P. (1990). Communication in the classroom: Power and motivation. Communication Education, 39(3), 181-195. Idioma Extranjero Inglés. (2013). Retrieved September 10, 2017, from http://www.curriculumenlineamineduc.cl/605/articles-30013_recurso_17_07.pdf.

(13) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 13. Lantolf, J., & Thorne, S. L. (2007). Sociocultural theory and second language learning. In. B. Van Patten & J. Williams (eds.), Theories in second language acquisition (pp. 201-224). Morgan, D. L. (1996). Focus groups as qualitative research (Vol. 16). Sage publications. Royston-Muirhead, L. (2016). Factors which aid or inhibit peer-to-peer interaction during Project Based Learning in a virtual high school for anxious school refusers: a case study in the United Kingdom (Doctoral dissertation, University of Cape Town). Webb, N. M. (1989). Peer interaction and learning in small groups. International journal of Educational research, 13(1), 21-39..

(14) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 14. Appendices Appendix A Survey 1, October 26th, 2017.. ¿Cómo crees que ocurre el aprendizaje? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________. ¿Qué papel juegas en tu propio aprendizaje? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ¿Qué papel juegan tus compañeros en tu aprendizaje? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________.

(15) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 15. Appendix B Survey 2, November 2nd, 2017.. ¿Cuál es tu aporte a la clase de inglés y al aprendizaje de tus compañeros? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________. ¿Qué entiendes por “trabajar en grupo”? ¿Cuál sería la mejor manera de hacerlo? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ¿Qué podría dificultar el trabajo en grupo? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ¿Qué importancia tiene la comunicación en el trabajo grupal? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________.

(16) Effective social interaction in the classroom. Appendix C Focus group, November 9th, 2017.. Focus group questions. 1- Que opinan de la frase: “el aprendizaje solo ocurre en la escuela”.. 2- ¿En qué instancias la interacción dentro de la sala es importante? – den un ejemplo concreto. ¿Qué momentos recuerdan?. 3- Que percepción tienen de la interacción dentro de la clase de Ingles, cuando se trabaja en las actividades.. 4- ¿Porque son importantes sus compañeros en su propio aprendizaje?. 5- Que opinan ¿El aprendizaje solo se logra observando?. 6- Qué tipo de interacciones sociales se dan en la sala de clases.. 7- Qué factores ustedes creen que inhiben o afectan la forma en la cual ustedes se relacionan dentro de la sala de clases.. 8- Podrían dan un ejemplo de que hace que ustedes no quieran participar o trabajar con otra persona en clases.. 16.

(17) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 17. Appendix D Worksheet 1.

(18) Effective social interaction in the classroom. 18. Appendix E Worksheet 2..

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