Vygotsky and Papert: Social-cognitive interactions within Logo environments

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of co-operative and individualised Logo environments on creativity and interpersonal relationships regarding academic recognition and social acceptance. Participants were 83 students who studied in three eighth grade classrooms: one was exposed to a co-operative Logo environment (N=30), the other to an individualised Logo environment (N=24), and the third served as a non-treatment control group (N=29). Results showed that students in the cooperative Logo environment outperformed their counterparts in the other two groups on certain measures of creativity (figurative-originality, verbal-flexibility, and verbaloriginality). In addition. the co-operative Logo group developed more positive interpersonal relationships than the students in the other two settings. The results are discussed from three perspectives: the social-cognitive approach emphasising the roles of co-operation and metacognition in developing advanced thinking skills; the educational-technology viewpoint demonstrating the potential use of computers: and the pedagogical view pointing out the implications of the study to school situations and heterogeneous classrooms.