Scaffolding processes occur when an expert provides assistance to a novice thus allowing the latter to solve a problem (Wood, Bruner and Ross, 1976). The role of the expert has been mostly associated to the teacher (van de Pol, Volman and Beishuizen, 2010). This has also been the case in inclusive education contexts (e.g. Radford, Bosanquet, Webster, and Blatchford, 2005). The aim of this research is to analyse the scaffolding processes developed in collaborative learning contexts where the role of the expert is transferred to the students. The participants were six Mexican high-school students identified with intellectual disabilities (ID) organised in two triads. From a sociocultural perspective of education, there are specific types of dialogue that seem to be more productive for learning (Alexander, 2008). This work presents a sociocultural discourse analysis of ‘dialogic interactions’ define as those where participants engage in significant contributions and learning is pushed forward by the learners themselves (Mercer and Littleton, 2007). Accordingly, video and audio recorded data were transcribed and the analyses were made on the transcriptions. Patterns of quantitative and interactional a/symmetry of talk were identified and described using the IRF structure (Sinclair and Coulthard, 1975); elements from the Ethnography of Communication (Hymes, 1972); and an analytic scheme known as the Cam-UNAM Scheme for Educational Dialogue Analysis: SEDA (Hennessy et al., 2016). Preliminary results suggest that asymmetric relationships among students took place when a student showed higher levels of competence in carrying out parts of the task. These asymmetries became opportunities for the development of scaffolding processes where more expert students promoted support to their peers. In their role of experts, students built, clarified and/or elaborated in their own and peers’ contributions; expressed disagreements; proposed courses of action to move the activity forward; and focused the dialogue towards key aspects of the task. Further results suggest that collaborative learning contexts may promote students to take the initiative to propose courses of action; ask for elaborations or clarifications; reach agreements; and justify or clarify owns and other’s points of view. The results found suggest that collaborative learning contexts may promote the development of dialogic skills. Furthermore, we see that students with ID can be active tutors, not just assuming the novice role that they tend to be given.

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