The relationship between predictions of others’ evaluations during opinion expression in collaborative learning and public self-consciousness

Abstract

Expressing one’s opinion is fundamental to collaborative learning; however, it also involves exposing one’s thoughts to evaluation by others. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between public self-consciousness and predicting how others would evaluate one’s thoughts during collaborative learning. Specifically, two hypotheses were proposed: first, learners with higher public self-consciousness would estimate that their peers would evaluate their opinions more negatively; and second, that learners with high public self-consciousness and a strong sense of control would produce more positive estimates of how others would evaluate their opinions than learners with high public self-consciousness but a low sense of control. A survey was conducted among junior high school students during group work, and multiple regression analysis was performed. The results revealed a significant interaction between public self-consciousness and sense of control, but only among second-year students. Contrary to the hypotheses, a positive relationship between sense of control and learners’ predictions regarding the evaluations of others was only observed among those with low public self-consciousness. Based on these results, the study discusses the relationships between public self-consciousness or sense of control and predictions of evaluations, utterance, and listening.