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A method that “works well” facilitates teachers' task of maintaining interest and
concentration among their audience. The class behaviour is not a main concern
in learning sciences research but it is a major issue for teachers (especially new
teachers), directors, parents and even students.
Cross-Plane Integration
In computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), the idea of “script” emerged
as a method that shapes the way collaboration will occur within a team (Dillenbourg,
2002). More precisely, scripts aim at triggering specific types of interactions that are
known to generate learning gains such as providing explanation, solving conflicts or
mutually regulating each other. For instance, to increase conflicts within a team,
some scripts, referred to as micro-scripts, will prompt peers to provide counter-
evidence against the claims made by the other (Weinberger, Ertl, Fischer, & Mandl,
2005). Another approach is to detect people who have opposite opinions and ask
them to perform a task together, or to give peers different documents to read so
that they end up with different opinions (Jermann & Dillenbourg, 1999). These so-
called macro-scripts (Dillenbourg & Hong, 2008) also include individual activities
(read, summarize, write, etc.) and class-wide activities (introductory lectures, vote,
debriefing, etc.) in addition to small group activities. We also refer to them as “inte-
grative” scripts (Dillenbourg & Jermann, 2007) in the same way we talk here about
“integrative” models.
Factor 4.
Integration
refers to the combination, within a consistent scenario, of
individual, small group and class-wide activities, as well as activities beyond
the class.
Anecdotically, we have used a notation (Fig. 26.1) that is very similar to music
scores. Time is represented from left to right. Lines refer to what Vygostky designed
as planes: the intra-psychological plane (level 1 in Fig. 26.1: individual cognition),
the interpsychological plane (level 2: small group interactions) and the social plane
(level 3: where culture is located). It is clear that the mental activities defined by
Vygostky occur most of the time at the three levels in parallel. The “notes” placed
on the score do not represent cognition but concrete activities.
These levels constitute an arbitrary segmentation of a social scale continuum.
However, looking at practices, most classroom activities occur along these three
levels: solo, class or in between. We added three levels that can be encountered:
(level 4) activities with other classes in the school; (level 5) activities with local
community (parents, correspondents, local fieldtrips, etc.) and (level 6) activi-
ties with the anonymous world via Internet (e.g. on-line newspapers, polls, etc.).
