Styles and sequences of cooperative interaction in fixed and reciprocal peer tutoring

The research presented here analyzes the process of interaction in pairs of students, organized into fixed and reciprocal tutoring, in an authentic written composition task. Analysis of the interactivity, or joint activity, highlights the emergence of two different patterns: the tutor's active pattern and the tutee's reactive pattern, as well as different styles of cooperative interactions, depending on the role (tutors tend to monopolize co-operation tutorials and the tutee tend to do so in collaborative sessions) and type of tutoring, reciprocal tutoring being that which best combines collaboration and tutorial. Finally, a sequential analysis allows for the identification of three types of sequences (collaborative, tutorial and the prototypical initiation-response-feedback sequence) that govern the exchanges in the tutorial situations analyzed and that locate cooperation as its central core.