Chapter 11 - Making the Shift to Interactivity in Education and Psychology

Summary

This chapter summarizes the evidence provided in the previous chapters that Anglo-European developmental psychology and education have been limited by a pervasive bias toward individualism. This is despite the focus of international educational assessment bodies on collaborative skills as being necessary for all students. The result of this has been a lack of robust findings, especially regarding social development, and an education system that is largely ineffective for students who are not from Anglo-European backgrounds. Addressing these related issues requires a shift in educational practice and policy toward collective achievement and collaborative forms of pedagogy. The chapter recommends the first steps toward moving education away from an individualistic paradigm. These include changing the unit of analysis from the individual to the interaction, creating group-level outcome variables, and restructuring learning environments. Multiple levels of schooling – the curriculum, instructional designs, the structure of schools, policy, assessment, and teacher training – are all discussed in terms of how they would need to shift to support collaborative competence as a goal for all children.