Análise microgenética da interação social e do funcionamento cognitivo de crianças por meio do jogo matix

Abstract

The present work was based on studies realized from the theoretical references of Piaget. It settled as its objective, to analyse the forms of social interaction of children in pairs on a competitive and non-competitive situation, as well as their cognitive functioning by means of the Matix game. Four ten year-old boys attending the 4 th grade of a Public Elementary School, took part in this study-case. The investigation was realized in four stages. On the first, each child played three sets with the experimentator, with the aim of knowing and exploring all the aspects of the game; the third set also served as an evaluation as to which level of comprehension of the logical system within the game, each child fitted in. On the second stage, the four participants formed pairs amongst themselves, by means of draw/cast lots, and they competed by playing three sets. When these three sets were over, there was a change in partners amongst the pairs, who once more competed playing three more sets. The shift in partners occurred until all participants had formed pairs amongst themselves. On the third stage there wasn’t a competitive situation, the participants being divided again in pairs, by draw/cast lots, and each one only formed a pair; and each pair resolved three problem-situations of the Matix game. On the fourth stage each participant played a set with the experimentator, so as to evaluate which level of comprehension each one was able to attend after going through the social interaction process. The obtained results from the quantitative and qualitative analysis indicated the existence of seven categories of social interaction in the competitive situation: cooperation, confrontation, willing collaboration, isolated performance, isolated performance with denial; isolated performance with commentary and exclusion. In the non-competitive situation, the interaction categories presented by the pairs varied a little from those found in the competitive situation. Besides, we verified an xii evolution of the levels of understanding of the logical system within the Matix game in all the participants. Based on the results of the research, we verified that the forms of social interaction are intimately dependent of the characteristics of the problem-situation proposed, of the cognitive functioning of each participant child in this interaction, and of the presented socio-cognitive dynamics. We also perceived, that the cognitive progress seems to be associated to the cognitive conditions of each subject, and to the possibility of their inter-relationship with their partners.