La teoría del conflicto sociocognitivo del desarrollo: Una mirada retrospectiva a partir de investigaciones propias

Abstract

La teoría del conflicto sociocognitivo del desarrollo cognitivo emerge en la psicología europea en la década de los 70, sobre todo a partir de investigaciones de la llamada Escuela de Psicología Social de Ginebra, que alcanzó notable difusión en las décadas siguientes. Representa una postura neopiagetiana crítica que pone el acento en el papel determinante de la interacción sociocognitiva entre iguales (y más específicamente de la confrontación de puntos de vista distintos) en el desarrollo de la inteligencia. En este artículo se analiza la especificidad del constructo que perimitirá determinar con claridad los elementos teóricos que lo definen y analizar las confusiones y malos entendidos a que dio lugar la notable difusión del paradigma en la psicología y la educación. En una segunda parte se reportan diversas ilustraciones experimentales sobre la temática, fruto de la labor de un equipo compacto de investigadores del IRICE (CONICET). Se trata de una selección en torno a tres ejes de extensión del paradigma: el conflicto como promotor del desarrollo de la operacionalidad formal, el microanálisis de los tipos y modalidades de conflicto sociocognitivo, y el papel de este en el aprendizaje de conocimientos y el cambio conceptual. Estas ilustraciones son solo un ejemplo de la vitalidad que el paradigma generó en el seno de este equipo de trabajo, y marcan una evolución que también se registra en el contexto científico global. El artículo también hace referencia a estos aportes, aunque el acento se pone en las investigaciones propias, entendido como una muestra de construcción colaborativa.

The theory of socio-cognitive conflict emerges in European Psychology in the 1970s, particularly from the research of the social psychology school of Geneve, that had a strong diffusion in the following years. This theory represents a neo-piagetian critical view of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, in the sense that the attention is focused on the role of peer socio-cognitive interaction (specifically in the social confrontations of different points of view) enhancing cognitive growth. The value of the socio-cognitive conflict promoting cognitive development lies in the decentration effect that it produces. According to this view, disturbance resulting from socio-cognitive conflicts gives way to a superior state of equilibrium. The first part of the article focuses on the theoretical and methodological analysis of the concept. In that way, two periods are distinguished in the evolution of the paradigm attending the inclusion of the communicational analysis of the verbal exchange between subjects. Also, this analysis refers to many confusions and misunderstandings in the larger application of the paradigm to psychology and education. The aim of the second part is to present some experimental illustrations produced by the IRICE (CONICET) research team’s work. These illustrations concern three conceptual axes: the application of the paradigm to the development of the formal-logical intelligence, the microanalysis of modalities and types of socio-cognitive conflict, and the extended application of the paradigm to the knowledge learning and conceptual change. The research reported in the first axis concerns the comparison of two experimental conditions: collaborative (dyads) and individual problem solving task (problems of Raven’s test), in a sample of 12-13 year old students. The comparison concerns to the performances both in the experimental treatment and in the individual post-test of equivalent problems applied to all participants. Results show, in both cases, the superiority of the collective condition. The second axis focuses on some studies concerning the modalities and types of socio-cognitive conflicts. Particularly, a system of categories for the analysis of the social behavior of children of different ages (4, 8 and 12 years old) in a block construction task (to build a house) is reported. This system differentiates many kinds of interactional behavior: dissociation, dominance-submission (both lower social coordination), cooperation (implicit and explicit) and collaboration (these three are modalities of higher social coordination). The third axis examines some illustrations referring to the extension of paradigm to the epistemic learning. After some references to the difficulty of this extension to the educational settings, two studies are reported. The first one concerns an experimental comparison between a collaborative learning condition (dyads) and an individual learning condition in university students of Psychology and Physics. Also, two kinds of collaborative learning are considered, one that assures alternating of participation, the incentive of argumentation and the reciprocal evaluation (in other words, the promotion of the socio-cognitive conflict), and one that is carried out without any intervention (spontaneous collaborative learning). Results show the superiority of the promoting socio-cognitive conflict condition upon the others, both in a written production and in individual learning post-tests. In a second research the comparison is between three instructional modalities to teach an epistemic topic: expositive, participative (with teacher’s scaffolding) and collaborative (only peers), in students of the first grade of secondary education (13 years old), in samples taken from two schools. Results for individual learning show that there are not great differences between the three modalities when the initial level (pre-test) of cognitive competence is high, but not if the cognitive level is low; here the collaborative condition (without scaffolding) has many difficulties. Finally, the article presents some general conclusions specifically concerning the socio-cognitive conflict.