Effects of a literary intervention on interaction quality in small-group discussions in the upper elementary grades

Background: Literary discussions represent a promising interaction context for the development of social, linguistic, and cognitive skills among children and adolescents. The one-year intervention of this study is based on a critical-analytic approach (Gasser et al., 2022; Murphy et al., 2009), focusing on the argumentative and inclusive quality of interactions in small group discussions about high-quality children's literature. Aims: The goal is to study the effectiveness of this literary intervention on observed socio-emotional and instructional interaction quality in small group discussions about a moral dilemma text. Sample: The sample included 51 teachers and 159 small groups from fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms. Method: The study is based on a cluster-randomized control group design with three measurement occasions, considering the multi-level structure of the data (L1: measurement occasions, L2: small groups, L3: teachers). Interaction quality in discussions was measured by the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Results: Multilevel growth curve analyses show positive changes in both socio-emotional and instructional interaction quality in small group discussions in the intervention group, but not in the control group. Conclusions: The results are discussed with reference to the potential of literary discussions for an integrated approach to promoting socio-emotional and academic learning.