Interação social de adolescentes em sala de aula: perspectiva histórica

The study of social interactions of children, teenagers and young adults in the classroom can favour understanding of the organizing dynamics of groups. Such an understanding contributes not only to more conscious directions for the process of teaching and learning, but also to improve human relations according to individual motivations. Acknowledging J. L. Moreno s theory can be a first step towards the study of social groups formed in the classroom, focusing on sub-groups formed by the interactions of the individuals. Moreno showed how each individual relates to his/her pairs based on laws of attraction and repulsion. Education professionals can better execute their work when paying attention to how each student relates with each other, using this knowledge about social rules to improve social relations in the group of students leading to a better performance in school. This work has a main goal to present the sociometrics theory of J. L. Moreno and his work in social groups,showing its value for educational practice. The Sociometrics Test developed by him is an important tool for sociodiagnosis, to reveal social patterns of subgroups that spontaneously appear in the classroom.Key-words: Social Interaction; Social Groups; Sociometrics Test.