New directions in evaluating social problem solving in childhood: Early precursors and links to adolescent social competence

Abstract

A major objective of this chapter is to present a novel, ecologically sensitive social problem-solving task for school-aged children that captures the complexity of social and cognitive demands placed on children in naturalistic situations. Competence on this task correlates with a range of skills including executive functions, verbal reasoning, and attention. Children able to successfully carry out this task in middle school were more competent in early adolescence in collaborating in joint problem-solving tasks with peers and solving conflicts with parents.

Distributed Cognition as a Lens to Understand the Effects of Scaffolds: The Role of Transfer of Responsibility

“…To assume responsibility for the scaffolded task, students need to make choices related to the task, because this will allow them to assume the executive function (Bibok et al 2009;Landry et al 2009;Perkins 1996;Salomon 1993). By reformulating the problem, students can make choices regarding pertinent information and pertinent characteristics of stakeholders.…”

“…From the distributed cognition perspective, there are two major considerations to promote the transfer of responsibility. First, scaffolds need to provide a framework within which students make choices, explore consequences of actions, and select a path of action (Bibok et al 2009;Landry et al 2009;Perkins 1996;Salomon 1993). This is because to enable transfer of responsibility, students need to maintain the executive function throughout the functioning of the distributed cognitive system (Perkins 1996;Salomon 1993).…”

“…Lynchpin of a distributed cognitive system: the executive function The ultimate determinant of whether students can assume responsibility from a distributed cognition system is the extent to which they maintain throughout the executive function of the system, defined as "making choices, operating at decision points to explore the consequences of options and select[ing] a path of action" (Bibok et al 2009;Landry et al 2009;Perkins 1996, p. 96;Salomon 1993). If students are not able to make choices, explore consequences of options, and otherwise make decisions regarding strategy, then they will not be able to assume the responsibility of the scaffolded task (Bibok et al 2009;Landry et al 2009;Perkins 1996;Salomon 1993).…”

“…If students are not able to make choices, explore consequences of options, and otherwise make decisions regarding strategy, then they will not be able to assume the responsibility of the scaffolded task (Bibok et al 2009;Landry et al 2009;Perkins 1996;Salomon 1993). They then will not be able to complete the task unaided (Bibok et al 2009;Landry et al 2009;Perkins 1996;Salomon 1993). Thus scaffolds need to be designed to allow students to make choices, operate at decision points, and select paths of action.…”

The Association Between Social Competence in Adolescents and Mothers’ Parenting Style: A Cross Sectional Study on Iranian Girls

“…These changes create a new feeling of identity in adolescents and lead them towards socialization with its entire emergence of developing an individual identity (Landry et al 2009). More reasons indicate the importance of social competence in promoting the outcome of adolescents' positive development.…”