Conceptual ground and findings overview of the polyphonic analysis of knowledge building dialogs

International audienceDialog plays a central role in learning processes, particularly in shared understanding and social knowledge construction. Based on the socio-cultural paradigm, the polyphonic model of dialog considers social knowledge-building as inter-animation of voices in an analogy with polyphonic music, where novelty, creativity and coherence are assured by an interplay of dissonances and consonances, evolving towards a harmonious whole. In this analogy, voices are participants' newly introduced concepts and points of view. Automated tools implementing the polyphonic model cope with the high volume and complexity of data by relying on Cohesion Network Analysis, and applying advanced Natural Language Processing techniques. Corresponding tools were successfully used for automated dialog analysis in a wide variety of educational settings, ranging from formal philosophical discussions in text-based discussion forums to informal online blog discussions. Although the presented methods are proven to reliably predict comprehension of contents and further participation in discussions, they are limited by the nature of text-based communication. Further development of the polyphonic model will be extended to gestures and body language, both in individual and group settings