Why more competent adolescents progress or regress after asymmetrical peer interaction

Abstract

This research follows adolescents who participated in joint problem solving of tasks examining early forms of formal-operational thinking, with their less competent classmates. Although original research shows that asymmetrical peer interaction did not influence formal-operational development in the majority of more competent (MC) adolescents, we decided to examine those who progressed and regressed most after the interaction, considering rare research interest for MC students. Thus, conversations of 10 dyads, of MC adolescents and their less competent (LC) peers, were investigated. Each dyad solved 5 tasks together, which MC students had successfully solved on the pre-test, unlike their LC partners. Ten dialogue characteristics, derived from the referent literature, were traced in the 50 dyads’ conversations. Two dialogue patterns related to different post-test outcomes of MC adolescents were identified by cluster analysis. In the first type of dialogue, MC students justified correct answers but frequently behaved inconsistently with their higher competences. The second type of dialogue characterizes domination-submissiveness pattern and MC students’ unwillingness to justify opinion. All regressing MC adolescents participated in dialogues of the first type, while half of progressing MC adolescents had dialogue from the second. Qualitative analysis implies that although ready to give arguments to their peers when they can, regressing MC students were uncertain in their own reasoning and that is way interaction led to their regression. Progressing MC students apparently tried to protect themselves from possible disturbances coming from their LC partners by dominant attitude towards them and withdrawing from communication.