Estudo de perfis interativos em crianças para a formação de pequenos grupos de trabalho

Abstract

This research study investigated interactive profiles in children enrolled in elementary school. The main objective of this project was to generate aids so teachers could have a wider view of how those profiles affect the conduction of collaborative activities in the school environment. The research consisted on an exploratory case study, predominantly qualitative with some quantitative interpretation of data. The literature review was structured based on different views of how people learn, the sociometry and also in psychological tests of social skills. Sixteen children and a teacher took part on this research study. All children were enrolled in the third grade of a public elementary school. All subjects were submitted to a psychological social skills test called SMHSC. The Socially Unskilled Reactions scale of the test was amplified and the subjects were placed into four different groups according to their suggested profiles. Each group participated in a collaborative activity integrated on a digital artifact call TOQ Interactive Table, where the data that supported this research was extracted. The analysis of these facts was initially done through the mapping of stimuli and reactions generated by the subjects and transformed, later on, into a specific analysis of stimuli that had triggered interlocutions. As the main product of this analysis a Model of Interactive Profiles for Collaborative Activities was proposed being structured by two main axis - omission/interaction and collaboration/egocentrism - and eight categories of interactive profiles. The main results of the research show that, for a deeper analysis of interactive profiles in children, teachers should take into consideration not only test results but also the evaluation of real situations. The study showed that it is possible to identify interactive profiles in groups of children, and that this knowledge facilitates the definition of classroom strategies to form groups of students in collaborative activities. The research study presented as main contributions: a collection of stimuli categories that can help teachers to better understand how students interact and react to stimuli within a group activity and also a Model of Interactive Profiles for Collaborative Activities presented as a relative map of interactive profiles. Both contributions are specific for this study with the possibility of being amplified for other situations. This transforms the random selection of students for a given group activity into a planned conscious act, raising the benefits of collaborative activities into a new level.