Socio-cognitive conflict and the role of student interaction in learning

Abstract

Work on socio-cognitive conflict has shown that confrontations can benefit learning when conflict is regulated in an epistemic manner, but can hinder learning when conflict is merely relational. The present research links this line of research to the work on peer learning, that has indicated that the partner’s competence can be beneficial when working on complementary information, but detrimental when working on identical information. Two studies showed that student confrontations during peer learning can be beneficial when working on complementary information, but detrimental when working on identical information.