Linking knowledge justification with peers to the learning of social perspective taking

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine whether justifying one’s own social knowledge (moral, societal, psychological) toward complex social-moral issues through collaborative argumentation was associated with the improvement of social perspective taking for elementary students. A total of 129 5th graders (52% female, Mage = 10.98) from six classrooms in two public schools participated in six weekly collaborative small-group discussions to reason about complex social-moral issues such as social exclusion. Two aspects of knowledge justification were examined: the frequency of knowledge justification and the diversity in perspectives. A Poisson regression with Generalized estimation equation (GEE) revealed that frequency of knowledge justification and diversity in perspectives during collaborative argumentation were associated with pre-post changes in students’ social perspective taking, as reflected in individual essays. Findings underscore knowledge justification as a potential mechanism of collaborative argumentation to promote elementary students’ social perspective taking.

KEYWORDS:

• Elementary students
• collaborative argumentation
• social perspective taking
• knowledge justification
• diversity in perspectives

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Academy of Education and Spencer Foundation. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent views of the foundation. We would like to thank the research team and the many administrators, teachers, and children without whom this study would not have been possible. We especially thank Rebecca Sallade, Narmada Paul, Alyssa Tonissen, and Anna Hippler for assisting in data collection and management.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Academy of Education and Spencer Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Saetbyul Kim

Saetbyul (Clara) Kim is a Fulbright scholar from South Korea and her research focuses on adolescents’ life purpose development, prosocial/moral motivation, civic learning based on a service-learning approach and dialogic instruction. Specifically, she is interested in examining how adolescents identify and establish personally meaningful life goals via their experiences in academic or social contexts, as well as what extra assistance may aid positive youth development. She is particularly open to collaborating with community organizations in initiating educational programs for adolescent development and undertaking relevant research.

Tzu-Jung Lin

Tzu-Jung Lin is Associate Professor of Educational Psychology in the Department of Educational Studies and Faculty Associate in the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy at the Ohio State University. Her scholarly interests center on understanding micro- and macro-level processes of dialogic instruction and identifying malleable factors underlying the complex classroom social ecologies that contribute to children’s social, moral, and academic development. She is Principal Investigator for this project funded by the Spencer Foundation and National Academy of Education.

Michael Glassman

Michael Glassman is Professor of Educational Studies at The Ohio State University. His work primarily focuses on the impact Internet technologies are having on individuals and the larger society. He has also published on issues such as Deweyan democratic education and moral development.

Seung Yon Ha

Seung Yon Ha is an educational psychologist with a background in educational intervention and evaluation. She received her PhD and postdoctoral training from The Ohio State University. She uses quantitative and mixed methodologies, and her current research focuses on adolescent academic and social development through culturally responsive educational support.

Ziye Wen

Ziye Wen is a doctoral student of Educational Psychology at The Ohio State University. Her work focuses on exploring ways to enhance adolescents’ social and cognitive development. She is currently working on a research project investigating adolescents' and parents' perceptions towards social media and video games.

Manisha Nagpal

Manisha Nagpal is a doctoral candidate in Educational Psychology at The Ohio State University. She is interested in exploring ways to enhance adolescents’ social emotional learning. She has specifically designed interventions/programs that are developmentally appropriate and can be incorporated as part of students’ regular academic learning. Currently, she has developed an intervention that uses mindfulness, yoga and collaborative small group discussions to enhance students’ social emotional competencies in ELA classes.

Trent N. Cash

Trent N. Cash is a Ph.D. student in the Joint Program between the Departments of Social and Decision Sciences and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. His research seeks to understand how individuals and societies make decisions about education. More specifically, he is interested in how cognitive, metacognitive, and social psychological processes affect the educational decisions that parents, teachers, students, and political actors make, and how these processes interact with the social and political infrastructure that is designed to aid individuals in making these complex and meaningful decisions. Within this framework, he is particularly interested in evaluating the cognitive and social factors that affect K-12 school choice, gifted education, educational nudges, and beliefs about how to fairly allocate educational resources.

Elizabeth Kraatz

Elizabeth Kraatz is an assistant professor of psychological sciences at Chadron State College. She received her PhD in educational psychology from The Ohio State University. Her work focuses on improving teacher practice through teaching and research, with an emphasis on classroom dialogue, teacher-student relationships, and interpersonal equity. She also works to improve use of undergraduate psychology education to build students’ critical thinking, self-reflection, and citizenship skills.