ON DIDACTIC MANAGEMENT OF SOCIOCOGNITIVE CONFLICT

Development is a process that requires conflict ('disequilibrium'). The dialogue allows to co-create new meaning through mutual understanding and reciprocal communications between two or more parties. 'New meaning' can threaten 'old meaning' that is inextricably embedded in cultural discourse. Sociocognitive conflict is one product or form of the meeting of the 'incommensurable' or 'irreconcilable' aspects of diverse cultures/interpretations of the same values. This meeting is a transformative process but the transformation is not always satisfying or mutually enriching, at least in the short term. The meeting of multiple knowledge systems may enrich perspectives, but also can impoverish perspectives and cause a retreat from dialogue into the social and cognitive security of the familiar. This paper brings in strategies and methods for positively managing sociocognitive conflict in the classroom.