Conference:
ECER 2008
Format:
Paper
Session Information
PRE_G3, Preconference; Paper Session G3
Paper Session
Time:
2008-09-09
10:00-11:30
Room:
C E38
Chair:
Solveig Hagglund
Contribution
The aim of the study is to describe and analyse how one student – called Sofia – with intellectual disabilities interact and communicate with her classmates and her teachers in an inclusion setting, grade 2. Furthermore, the aim is also to analyse in what way interaction contributes to Sofia’s social participation and learning process.
The theoretical framework for study is a sociocultural perspective (Säljö, 2000; Vygotskij, 1978). The social interaction theory is another important tool to understand intentionality and reciprocity (Mead, 1995; Wertsch, 1998).
Classroom studies as this brings important knowledge of how students with intellectual disabilities manage to develop adequate strategies to become a social member and an active learner. This reflects the meaning making process students in general are involved in.
Method
An ethnographic method is used in the case study (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1995). Classrooms observations were done trough video-recording and observations. The study has a micro-ethnographic approach focusing on the analysis of interaction and communication on the individual level.
Expected Outcomes
The result from the study shows a continuum of varied situations for Sofia’s learning where she becomes an active participant in the classroom. In general, there are three main categories of situations for learning: One where Sofia is beside the learning activity; one where she is in the learning activity and one were she is moving between to be beside and to be in the learning activity. In other words; Sofia can place herself in different positions in relation to varied learning situations. How she place herself depends on what support and scaffolding she gets. It is obvious that Sofia’s own actions are of great importance for how successful her interaction will be as well as the affordances given. Sofia’s strategy for interaction and communication with her classmates and her teachers is both verbal and nonverbal. Different bodily expressions in the classroom contribute to how Sofia getting involved in interaction processes. The teachers and the classmates rolls as mediators of social and cognitive skills is here of central importance.
References
Alexandersson, U. (2007). Situation för samspel. En studie on en elevs delaktighet i skolarbetet. Master thesis. Göteborg Hammersley, M. & Atkinson, P. (1995). Ethnography – principles in practice. London: Routledge. Mead, G. H. (1995). Medvetandet, jaget och samhället från socialbehavioristisk ståndpunkt. Lund: ARGOS. Säljö, R. (2000). Lärande i praktiken. Ett sociokulturellt perspektiv. Stockholm: Prisma. Wertsch, J. V. (1998). Mind as action. New York: Oxford University Press. Vygotskij, Lev S. (1978). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
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