III IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROGRAMME IN EACH GRADE I INTRODUCTION “LEARNING TOGETHER”: THE CREATION OF COMMUNITIES OF INQUIRY SUPPORTED BY ICT a) Multimedia stories An innovative educational programme is described S.M Rojas-Drummond*, Albarrán, M.G Vega, M Zúñiga & M Vélez which has been implemented in publicC.D primary schools In 4th in grade, we promote children’s enjoyment, Mexico for over six years called “Learning Together” The comprehension and productionofof literary texts, including Faculty of Psychology, National Mexico purpose of the programme is to form communities of Autonomous inquiry with University stories In particular, we strengthen abilities such as the the active participation of primary students, teachers, recognition of different literary genres and the detection of story administrators as well as university researchers All members structures and styles At the same time, children produce in are encouraged to contribute to the social construction teams their own ofstories In this process, they search for story knowledge These communities promote ideas, functional social, they then integrate these ideas into a plan and translate cognitive, psycholinguistic, technological and their academic abilities plan into a coherent text Later they revise and polish their in primary students stories We encourage that their texts include vivid descriptions, interesting dialogues, cohesive narratives and the use of Throughout the six years of implementation, numerousand drama humor, suspense quantitative and qualitative longitudinal research projects have been carried out, which have both theoretical andOnce practical children's stories are written in a word processor, applications In these projects, we have analysed, among them other into a multimedia version For this purpose, they convert processes, how children appropriate the target under animation, voice and music, with the help of theyabilities use pictures, study over time, as well as the success of the Point program Power and in Internet The stories produced reflect the work promoting them (e.g Rojas-Drummond, & Mercer, of the2003; teamRojasand represent an opportunity for learning literacy Drummond et al., 2003; Rojas-Drummondskills & Peón, 2004; context in a meaningful Wegerif et al., in press, 2005) This proposal is based on a sociocultural perspective b) School bulletin and e-mail correspondence This approach assumes that knowledge is jointly constructed when people engage in meaningful activities mediated a In 5th by grade, students prepare a school bulletin in a variety of artefacts (e.g Cole, 1996; Cole, Engeström and & carry out e-mail exchanges of letters and word-processor Vasquez, 1997; Mercer, 2000; Rogoff, 1990, 2003;with Rogoff, pictures Mexican-American pals fromchildren the USA In the 4th grade creating a Turkanis & Bartlett, 2001; Wells, 1999; Wertsch, 1988, 1991) production of the bulletin, students discuss together multimedia story (See to write journalistic texts such as news,example book and film reviews, of product belowopinion Within the mediators that play a central in our suggesting changes articlesrole and letters photo) in their community Later programme are different genres of oral andthey written language integrate all their products in several bulletins, and format and ICT for a variety of functional purposes.and These mediators illustrate them using Publisher and Internet help to promote the development of “functional literacy” in students, as well as the co-construction of knowledge among all participants We define “functional literacy” broadly In to these includeways students learn how to communicate the competent uses of written language as well as ICT and to carry effectively argue their points of view In addition, the e-mail out diverse meaningful social activities (e.g., Mercer et al.,allow 2003;them to share diverse cultural experiences as exchanges Littleton & Light, 1999; Wegerif & Dawes, 2004) well as to further develop their literacy competence Our programme is implemented in parallel with the rest of the school activities However, the functioning of the former is and c) Internet searches digital conferences Setting of the Learning dramatically different from that of ordinary classrooms in most Together programme public primary schools in Mexico The latter not provide this rich social learning environment, with only the text Lastly, book as6tha grade students select, comprehend and source for carrying out exercises, no uses of ICT and the texts from different sources to create a integratewhere expository teacher generally follows very traditional methods which involve team conference, choosing their own topic To this, they mainly directive-transmissional styles of interaction learn to(Mercado, use, orchestrate and integrate abilities such as: Rojas-Drummond et al., 1998; Paul, 2005) recognize and analyze an information problem; design and apply effective information research strategies; evaluate, select 5th grade children creating a In contrast, our programme seeks to create and organize relevant information; understand and synthesize bulletin (See example of communities of inquiry where all members participate activelyselected; in the information integrate the information gathered into product below photo) pursuing authentic projects and solving a variety of problems a coherent text and transform this text into an illustrated These involve competent uses of functional conference literacy andto have be presented to an audience meaningful applications in a wide variety of contexts inside as well as outside of school The ICT used to carry out the above activities includes: Functional and information illiteracya portal are very web,wideother digital and printed texts, hypertexts, a word spread among our student population processor in Mexico, as and Power Point All these activities and tools help demonstrated by several international and national studies (e.g important independent study and research children to develop OECD, 2001, 2004) Thus, finding solutions for this problem has they help to strengthen functional and skills Furthermore, become a central target of the Mexican educational authorities information literacy abilities which are useful in a wide variety of Ordinary, traditional and our programme shares these concerns educational and sociocultural contexts classroom in a public primary school 6th grade children creating a Setting of the Learning Together programme Power Point conference (See example of product below II GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAMME II GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAMME The programme “Learning Together” is carried out in a multipurpose room within the primary school, designed exprofesso It is equipped with modular furniture that allows for a diversity of group activities, as well as a small library and computers connected to the Internet The programme “Learning Together” is carried out in a multipurpose room within the primary school, designed ex-professo It is equipped with modular furniture that allows for a diversity of group activities, as well as a small library and computers connected to the Internet The programme is implemented with th, 5th and 6th grade students (from to 12 years old) All throughout the Adults and children academic year, the respective participating teachers and interacting in the setting of the IV CONCLUSIONS students of each classroom come once a week to this setting for Learning Together a 90 session Each session is coordinated by the programme respective teacher with the support of several university researchers (“facilitators”) Before and during implementation of the programme, teachers and researchers workIningeneral, close results of the multiple studies carried out throughout the years of implementation, have demonstrated collaboration to design and carry out all the activities that students who participate in the programme “Learning Together”, in contrast with peers matched on a wide variety of The sessions are organized in modules Each module is characteristics, develop significantly better social, cognitive, designed to develop diverse target general and specific abilities psycholinguistic and technological abilities These results in in the students These are adapted to each grade and increase turn have had a positive impact in the student’s school in degree of sophistication, been integrated with each other achievement In addition, the programme has demonstrated its’ gradually as children advance throughout the programme potential to contribute to diminish the high indices of functional andbyinformation Among the target abilities strengthened each of theilliteracy which prevail among the Mexican student population modules are: 1) collaboration and communication; 2) problem solving; 3) general psycholinguistic abilities; 4) comprehension As partand of our research, we have also analyzed in and production of literary texts; 5) comprehension microgenetic follow-ups the quality of the interaction and production of communicative and argumentative texts, and 6) discourse taking place as peers work together in different comprehension and production of expository texts projects We have also studied how these collaborative processes are appropriated by the students and evolve over The first modules are common to all grades, while time Our th th th results have lead us to confirm that the creation of the module is implemented only in grade, the module of isinquiry within schools supported by ICT, only in 5th grade and the 6th module only incommunities 6th grade This provides very adequate environments to induce the active because in each grade a special discursive genre is privileged participation and of students These communities in and students create team projects which involve severalmotivation Modules of the Learning turn enhance learning, development, and the appropriation of functional uses of oral and written language, as well as ICT together program and diverse cultural tools They also promote the co-construction of However, the projects in each case are geared towards presentation of multimedia knowledge among all participants developing competence in the use of that particular genre stories during cultural fair These projects are presented at the end of the year in a “cultural Our studies have also revealed that there can be fair”, with the participation of the whole learning community as important transference of some of the intervention strategies well as a broader audience used in the programme to the classroom, enriching the way teachers conduct Some of the teaching-learning strategies used bytheir educational practices The programme is implemented with 4th, 5th and 6th grade students (from to 12 years old) All throughout the academic year, the respective participating teachers and students of each classroom come once a week to this setting for a 90 session Each session is coordinated by the respective teacher with the support of several university researchers teachers and facilitators to implement the programme are: 1) the In conclusion, “Learning Together” has demonstrated creation of learning environments rich in social interaction where its’ potential for endowing primary students with relevant, flexible the diverse activities carried out are mediated by a variety of and functional repertoires which can enable them to participate cultural artifacts; 2) guided participation between experts and more competently and independently as part of their community novices (e.g Rogoff, 1990) where adults scaffold children’s inside as well work as outside of school learning activities; 3) cooperative learning where peers jointly in the creation of “Intermental Development Zones”, as well as in the co-construction of knowledge (Mercer, 2000); and 4) the promotion of sociocognitive styles of interaction and Illustration of some of the discourse (Rojas-Drummond, 2000) teaching-learning strategies used to implement the LT programme * E-mail: silviar@servidor.unam.mx BIBLIOGRAPHY Cole, M (1996) Cultural Psychology A once and future discipline Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press Cole, M., Engeström, Y y Vasquez, O (1997) Mind, culture, and activity Seminal papers from the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition New York: Cambridge University Press Littleton, K & Light, P (Eds.) (1999) Learning with computers London: Routledge Mercado, R., Rojas-Drummond, S.M., Weber, E., Mercer, N., y Huerta, A (1998) La interacción maestro-alumno como vehículo del proceso de ensanza-aprendizaje en la escuela primaria Morphé, 8-9, 15-16, Julio 96-Junio 97 Mercer, N (2000) Words and minds How we use language to think together London: Routledge Mercer, N., Fernandez, M., Dawes, L., Wegerif, R., & Sams, C (2003) Talk about texts; using ICT to develop children's oral and literate abilities Reading, Literacy and Language, Vol 37, No.2, 81-89 OECD (2004) Learning for Tomorrow's World: First results from PISA 2003 Retrieved January, 27, 2005, from http://www.pisa.oecd.org/document/55/0,2340 OECD (2001) Knowledge and Skills for Life: First Results from PISA 2000 Retrieved January, 27, 2005, from http://www.caliban.sourceoecd.org Paul Wright, J.E (2005) Beliefs and practices of high school biology teachers: a case study of communities of practice Unpublished doctoral dissertation México: DIE/CINVESTAV Peón, M., y Rojas-Drummond, S.M (in press, 2005) Promoción de habilidades argumentativas en niđos de primaria En Barriga, R (Ed.) Mitos y realidades del desarrollo lingüístico en la escuela México: Colegio de México Rogoff, B (2003) The cultural nature of human development London:Oxford University Press Rogoff, B., Turkanis, C & Bartlett, L (Eds.) (2001) Learning together: Children and adults in a school community London: Oxford University Press Wegerif, R., Perez, J., Rojas-Drummond, S., Mercer, N y Velez, M (in press, 2005) Thinking together in México and the U.K.: a comparative study Journal of Classroom Interaction Wells, G (1999) Dialogic inquiry: Towards a sociocultural practice and theory of education New York: Cambridge University Press Wertsch, J.V (1991) Voices of the mind A sociocultural approach to mediated action Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press Wertsch, J.V (1988) Vygotsky y la formación social de la mente Barcelona: Paidós ... to confirm that the creation of the module is implemented only in grade, the module of isinquiry within schools supported by ICT, only in 5th grade and the 6th module only incommunities 6th grade... DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAMME II GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAMME The programme “Learning Together” is carried out in a multipurpose room within the primary school, designed exprofesso It is... transference of some of the intervention strategies well as a broader audience used in the programme to the classroom, enriching the way teachers conduct Some of the teaching-learning strategies used bytheir