Social interactions and the mediation of science learning in two small groups of first‐graders

Abstract

This study investigated the nature of small-group social interactions in the mediation of children's science learning. Two small groups of 4 first-graders and their teacher were observed throughout a 15-day unit on insect life cycles (butterfly and beetle metamorphosis). The study was qualitative in nature and guided by a sociocultural constructivist framework. Consistent with the theoretical framework, inductive analysis methodology guided the methods of inquiry. On the basis of the patterns that emerged from the data, two assertions are postulated to explain how the teacher's and children's social interactions mediated the children's science learning during small-group activity. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.