Exploring pupils' face-to-face interaction in a co-learning classroom context: The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Global education trends indicate that social interaction skills grounded in cooperation are becoming crucial for current quality education. More than ever, empirical research and educational innovation call for a socially inclusive focus on strengthening teachers’ and pupils’ pedagogical face-to-face encounters in co-learning processes. These processes can help engage in preparing every pupil for twenty-first-century social and work lives. This thesis is a response calling for socio-dynamic relational pedagogies that promote active engagement in education, cooperation and social inclusion, such as cooperative learning. This article-based dissertation aims to understand and explore how pupils’ and teachers’ experiences with face-to-face promotive interactions can strengthen socially responsive resources for co-learning education. The three peer-reviewed articles have explored the following subresearch questions: - Which face-to-face promotive interaction factors lead to successful cooperative learning in small groups? - How do pupils and teachers perceive face-to-face promotive interaction in cooperative learning group work? - How do Year 4 pupils practice their face-to-face promotive interactions in small cooperative learning groups?

This is an exploratory case study in which qualitative empirical data with auxiliary quantitative data were drawn from two primary schools implementing a cooperative learning approach in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The thesis is grounded in intertwined sociocultural theoretical perspectives on learning and social interdependence theory.

The first article is a literature review of 34 international empirical studies selected through systematic searches of databases and manual searches of academic journals. This review study explores the critical factors of pupils’ face-to-face promotive interactions (FtFPI) associated with engagement for successful co-learning. The results, which are embedded in a face-to-face promotive interaction model, have indicated three groups of factors that underpin pupils’ socially responsive engagement: (1) factors that characterise FtFPI (interpersonal behaviour and supportive communication), (2) factors as determinants of FtFPI (experiences and processes; teacher influences) (3), FtFPI mediating status regarding deep learning. The study illuminates the complexity of face-to-face promotive interaction situations, indicating a lack of more profound insights from the pupils’ and teachers’ experiences and practices, which most of the reviewed quantitative studies could not provide.

The second article documents the supportive and challenging influences of face-toface promotive interaction factors on the co-learning group process by exploring pupils’ and teachers’ perspectives. Pupils’ questionnaires (N= 192) and one-to-one interviews with 4 teachers and 16 pupils were analysed through descriptive statistics to obtain quantitative data and a ‘hybrid’ thematic analysis to obtain qualitative data. In merging numerical and interview data, the results have revealed several challenges and conflicting signals regarding (non)insufficient pupils’ and teachers’ knowledge of socially responsive co-learners’ roles. The study also illustrates the teachers’ role as facilitators needing adequate and continuous preparation for face-to-face promotive interaction for/through the cooperative learning principles. The study provides insights into interpersonal behaviour and supportive communication, which can be identified as the most challenging aspects that may shape socially responsive behaviours in group work inclusive processes.

The third article analyses how pupils in Year 4 (10–11 years old) used face-to-face promotive interaction resources by focusing on interpersonal behaviours and supportive communication features in mixed abilities co-learning groups. The findings have shown that using explicit or subtle, almost ‘hidden’, verbal or nonverbal interpersonal tools in recognition and willingness to respond to co-learners’ needs may shape personal, interpersonal behaviour and interactional dimensions within group work. The article argues that knowledge about the variety of socially responsive features can become a resource for quality engagement in co-learning processes.

The thesis indicates that deepening knowledge in face-to-face promotive interaction as a socially responsive engagement for co-learning can strengthen socially inclusive resources for quality primary education; the dissertation contributes to the theoretical picture of socially responsive knowledge by exploring various face-to-face promotive interactional resources associated with positive interdependency dimensions. In addition, this thesis contributes empirical knowledge to a valued research-based co-learning pedagogy for intertwined social and academic gains in diverse primary classroom practices. The study adds methodological knowledge to the field, showing how face-to-face promotive interaction can be studied through the subaspects of interpersonal behaviours and supportive communication for socially responsive education. In a crucial sense, this thesis generates the vision of co-agency strengthening grounded in a pedagogy of cooperation as a central topic for discussion in education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, focusing on the role of the colearner for co-agency with human quality and social values regarding solidarity and inclusion requires recognising and turning detected challenges into socially responsive resources for education needs and quality education.