What is Social Interdependence

The study described here was designed to demonstrate the sociocognitive benefits experienced by preschool children, specifically 5 year-olds, when they participated in a collaborative activity whose central task was the production of consensual preconcept maps. This task required oral interaction throughout the process of meaning negotiation and the selection of the preconcepts required by such a task. Therefore, the objective of the author’s research was twofold: (1) on one hand, to investigate the educational relevance of collaborative work to an early childhood classroom (with 5 year-old pupils), and (2) to explore the possibility of using consensual preconcept maps at this level, analysing the implications for the development of children’s competence.