Aleksandre DC.

San Gabriel 26/08/2018

2018 – 68325 BS MST AB7
Learning Task No. 1
Learning Through Student-Student Interaction

Observed Class Observed Class Name of Subject Date and Time of

(subject) (section) Teacher Observation

Mathematics Lauan Ma’am. Buela 8:30 – 10:00 am

Filipino Lauan Mr. Lanzaderas 1:00 – 2:30 pm
Disaster and Risk
Reduction Management Lauan Ma’am Posa 2:30 – 4:00 pm
Chemistry (Lab) Guijo Ma’am Millanes 7:20- 8:40 am
Table 1 Overview of the subject, section, teacher and date of time of observation

Paragraph form description, analysis, and reflection on the observation focusing on the topic at
hand for the learning task.
I. Description

Figure 1 Ma'am Buela asking her student to read the problem in class

UP Rural High School SHS – 23rd of August year 2018, the class is in its normal state,
early in the morning dressed in white tops and blue skirts and black pants; prim and proper.
Students, typically excited, starts their day by chitchatting with their friends and asking if there are
missed assignments, upcoming quizzes or relating to their previous day in class. Based on most of
the classes that I’d observed, teachers were early in their respective classrooms, waiting for the
arrival of their students; as they start their formal class, the students fixate their positions, greets
their teachers in unison encompassing discipline and politeness. Readily open their notebooks and
manuals, starts writing as the ppt or formally known as powerpoint presentation start its slides. All
of the classes started enthusiastically, they often recall their previous discussion, what about it and
what are their thoughts.
Students share their thoughts with each other, they created cooperation out of nowhere to
figure out the questions that were thrown by the teachers, more likely they were able to accomplish
it by amalgamating their thoughts. One example is when their teacher in Mathematics, Ms. Buela,
asked them to figure out the shape based on words not by drawing. Some students relied on
themselves but others asked for their classmates’ idea by comparing it to see if they are alike, if
not, they help each other to understand.
Before ending their class, Filipino teacher, Mr. Lanzaderas asked 12 – Lauan to work in
pairs, asking them to do the assignment outside the class to be passed next meeting. It encourages
students to think critically, to share their thoughts, and to contribute by socializing to their other
half.
Disaster and Risk Reduction Management – When Ma’am Posa, DRRM adviser starts
talking, some students weren’t listening, one student uses his laptop, students at the back were
merely talking, some were asking for clearer explanation. The atmosphere of the class was
monotonous, and the teacher was just talking in front. Not much of interaction was shown.
All of these happened in one day, in one class and they have managed to show different
interests and interaction.

Table 2 A student going back for his seat after solving the problem in
Chemistry

6th of September, 2018. Guijo, a grade 10 class in UP Rural High School JHS, started their
day in Chemistry lab. Ma’am Millanes, their Chemistry adviser posts her visual aids, it was their
topic last meeting and they were asked to recall their previous discussion thus, relating it to their
topic for today. She gave different set of problems to her students, and calls everyone for recitation.
Students engagingly answers the questions on the board and on their notebooks.
 II. Analysis
Student-student interaction is a vital part of any course experience. In a classroom setting, this
interaction happens naturally, as students listen to each other’s comments, ask each other questions
and build rapport through frequent contact. (Rochester Institute of Technology, 2014)
Working in collaborative peer groups is reported to help the students to construct and become
aware of their own thinking processes. When sharing their views and perspectives with others, the
students can discover divergent ways of approaching phenomena and solving problems. Moreover,
they can build on each other’s contributions to re-construct new interpretations and views that were
yet to be discovered. The practice of sharing and constructing perspectives in collaborative
interaction is also assumed to promote reflection, planning and metacognition. (Arvaja et al., 2000)
When Mr. Landazeras, Filipino teacher, asked his students to work in pair, outside class hours,
ad hoc, thus more likely to require students to work better. The objective after all is to have
dynamics in the process, to develop thinking, cognitive learning, to practice social-interaction,
managing time, to cooperate and to apply what the learned in class on the outside world. It is
something to be learned by experiencing it. This has been evident throughout.
An instance was when Grade 12 – Lauan’s Math adviser, Ma’am Buela was asking a math
problem in a form of illustration; student drew it different than the other. In that case, they were
able to merge their cognitive disagreement and did the right illustration. It was supported by Doise
and Mugny, stating that social interaction is seen as helping the individual to understand and
become aware of thinking processes, since the explication and organization of thought in speech
assists the reorganization of knowledge. On the other hand, while listening to others, the learner
will be able to compare different interpretations and point of view. The disagreements confronted
during the interaction may cause cognitive conflicts, which, after being solved, stimulate cognitive
reorganization, or accommodation in Piaget’s terms, in the individual (Doise and Mugny, 1984).
A study was conducted to test the difference between the individual and social-cognitive
learning, for example in individuality, students solve math problems independently, that is their
analysis, thus, when comparing their answers with others consisting social-cognitive, that is the
reflecting thinking process.
Although we are still remarkably ignorant about the dynamics and processes of peer group
interaction and learning, studies of cooperative learning and peer tutoring in different instructional
settings have identified specific interactions that seem to promote learning. These forms of
interaction have included providing explanations. (Webb, Troper and Fall, 1995), asking
appropriate questions (King, 1989) and exchanging ideas, explanations, justifications,
speculations, interferences, hypotheses and conclusions (Cohen, 1994). Of importance also seems
to be the provision of sufficient time for participants to think before responding (Graesser and
Person, 1994) and the use of supportive communication skills such as giving feedback and
encouragements (Webb and Farivar, 1994).
Although there is evidence that collaborative interaction in peer groups can promote
learning, there are still many barriers to its success. These barriers can include, among other things,
interpersonal dynamics and the nature of the leaning situations in which collaborative interaction
takes place (Kumplainen, 2002)
One factor is when having a group activity to be able to contribute or communicate to the
group and sharing insights, for others this has been a problem since they were comfortable doing
things on their own and getting expose to this kind of environment needs time to adjust and adapt.
Its behavioral habits give impact to the group.
The students’ communication skills and habits also play a role in mediating productive
collaborative interaction (Bennett and Dunne, 1992). Students do not always engage in giving
arguments, making hypotheses, providing explanations and elaborating or justifying their actions
of views through their verbal interaction. The students may use imprecise language when
communicating their views to their peers. All these elements challenge the reciprocity between
interactors that is, apparently, necessary for collaborative meaning-making (Kumplainen, 2002).
In this case that’s why it’s a learning method, to deliver the need of others by providing
other people to help one another, there it hones its character to engage out of their comfort zones,
ending with well-developed character and quality learning.
Interaction has an impact on student achievement and satisfaction as reflected by test
performance, grades, and student satisfaction. (Robyler and Ekhaml, 2000)
III. Reflection
In a four-cornered room, student-student interaction happens every day without us knowing
that it created a difference. When we talk, we exchange dialogues filled with learning, words in
form of sentences. In the sense without us knowing, we create connections, we learn and they learn
as well.
When people share the same interests, they are bound to coalesce and share their opinions
and ideas forming knowledge. Knowledge is not static, you shape and hone it in different ways,
through experience in oneself and other people’s experiences. It’s agreeable that to learn in groups
than individual is another way to refine the intellect someone possesses.
It may be more helpful for others who wants to let other people hear their thoughts, but for
some it is a struggle to open, for reasons like lack of confidence. Some people are comfortable
working alone, that is their way to thrive and bring the best in themselves. From my observations,
social-cultural interaction pushes people to communicate, willingly or unwillingly. Those who
work alone are often focused and has less time socializing but through time manages to become
accustomed to their environment. It creates a medium for people to do in-depth conversations and
to optimize their potentials as a group. People who have created bonds want to help each other to
obtain their goal and that is to comply to the set requirements.
Nevertheless, the student-student interaction doesn’t end in a classroom setting; with
everyone’s diverse backgrounds, develops growth, adaptivity and helps them identify their forte.
Not only they manage to gain respect by getting to know each other as people and through that
with the diversity, it will enable things to bring each other to learn differences and reflect through
learning some of accomplishments on what things they can accomplish themselves. It’s supporting
community, it’s a healthy competition where everyone strives their best not descending the ladder.
Learning can be two ways, individual or with the help of others. A person benefit from
both of it. It’s true that working alone makes you focus and develops your decision-making
capability but it’s also true that student-student interaction makes the job easier, faster and with
quality. Interaction is after all, inevitable.
References
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Educational Psychologist, 111-126.

Arvaja, M. H.-P. (2002). Collaborative processes during report writing of a science learning project: The
nature of discourses as a function of task requirements. European Journal of Psychology of
Education, 455-456.

Bennett, N. a. (1992). Managing Classroom Groups. Hemel Hempestead: Simon and Schuster.

Cohen, E. (1994). Restructing the classroom: Conditions for productive small groups. Review of
Educational Research, 1-35.

Doise, W. a. (1984). The Social Developmentof the Intellect. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Graesser, A. a. (1994). Question asking during tutoring. American Educational Research Journal, 104-137.

Kumpulainen, K. (2002). Classroom Interaction and Social Learning: From Theory to Practice. Psychology
Press.

Robyler, M. a. (2009). How interactive are your distance courses? A rubric for assessing interaction in
distance learning. Callaway, Georgia.

Studemt-to-student interaction online. (2014, October). Retrieved from Rochester Institute of

Technology: https://www.rit.edu/academicaffairs/tls/course-design/teaching-
elements/student-to-student

Webb, N. M. (1994). Promoting helping behavior in cooperation groups in the middle school
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Webb, N. M. (1995). Constructive activity and learning in collaborative small groups. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 406-423.