Literacy instruction and learning processes at school. A microgenetic study

Abstract

Anchored in genetic psychology and the general frame of knowledge transformations studies, a new object of research is recently being developped. It deals with situated microgenesis, where knowledge is transformed in the real classroom context of socio-cognitive interactions. It also deals with didactic microgenesis, where the effective teaching-learning processes are concerned with a specific knowledge content: literacy.

This contribution is threefold. First, it will briefly underline the theoretical emergence of didactic microgenesis from former trends of microgenetic studies. Second, it will point out the main units of analysis required in order to proceed to the micro-analysis of knowledge transforming (hence literacy) through the verbal interactions between learners and teacher. The rough data proceed from video-recording of a 45 min. interactive reading of a picture-book, occuring with children aged four and their teacher, at the beginning of the school year in kindergarten . Data are then transcribed in complete and continuous chronicles, then elaborated by segmenting-interpreting the “units of meaning” (UM), that deal with the underlying meanings implicitly contained in each partner’s enunciation. The teacher’s objective for this setting determines the interpretation of the units of meaning. It is to have children move from semiopicturality (where they draw the meaning of the story from the pictures) to semiography (where the planed meaning is controlled by the author’s text). It aims at making children aware of the necessity of text reading, rather then mere picture looking. The UM are first coded regarding the content of knowledge they refer to, and the modality of speech as a cue of meaning-processing. The UM are then gathered into “sequences”, caracterized by a dominant content and a dominant modality. Third, the results will be presented, in two points: 1) the chain of sequences, refering to the on-line co-construction of semiography. In the case of knowledge, the co-construction will be called asymetric, the partners’ position being the one of expert-novice relationship, reinforced by the social contract of school ; 2) the patterns that caracterize each sequence from the interactive point of view, especially the co-construction of a common zone of meaning. In the case of meaning, the co-construction will be called symetric, the teacher as well as the learners being constrained, in their seek of success in the learning process, by the other’s own cognitive limits, representations and expectations. While providing the scientific community with an appropriate research tool for the difficult analysis of effective learning and teaching on line processes, this research also provides the teachers’ practices in kindergarten with an instructional design of interactive reading (and writing), that fosters children’s awareness of the alphabetic principle through meaningful textual activities.