Dialogic interactions, co-regulation and the appropriation of text composition abilities in primary school children

Abstract

Abstract This qualitative study analyses the interplay between dialogic interactions, co-regulation and the appropriation of text composition abilities in Mexican primary school children. The report is a sequel to a broader, quantitative year-long study by Rojas-Drummond et al. (2016). The latter included 120 sixth-graders from two (experimental and control) schools. Both groups solved an individual and group pre- and post-intervention Test of Textual Production. Between tests, experimental children participated in a programme called ‘Learning Together’, which emphasises dialogic interactions and collaborative learning. Macro-analyses revealed that the experimental group (in comparison with the control), learned to compose higher quality written articles, not only when working in small-groups but also independently. To understand how these achievements might have come about, in the present paper we report fine-grained micro-analyses of the dialogic interactions and co-regulatory processes of four ‘focal triads’ while working in collaborative writing activities at the start and end of the academic year. Results showed that the experimental focal triads (in comparison with their control peers) gradually learned to interact in a more collaborative, dialogic, strategic and reflexive way, co-regulating their actions. We hypothesise that these changes might be key in the evolving process of Learning Together participants becoming more expert writers.