Scaffolding students’ problem-solving processes in an ill-structured task using question prompts and peer interactions

This study examined the effects of question prompts and peer interactions in scaffolding undergraduate students’ problem-solving processes in an ill-structured task in problem representation, developing solutions, making justifications, and monitoring and evaluating. A quasi-experimental study, supplemented by multiple-case studies, was conducted to investigate both the outcomes and the processes of student problem-solving performance. The quantitative outcomes revealed that question prompts had significantly positive effects on student problem-solving performance but peer interactions did not show significant effects. The qualitative findings, however, did indicate some positive effects of peer interactions in facilitating cognitive thinking and metacognitive skills. The study suggests that the peer interaction process itself must be guided and monitored with various strategies, including question prompts, in order to maximize its benefits.     

The relationship between task structure and collaborative group interactions in a synchronous peer interaction collaborative learning environment for a course of Physics

Although collaborative group work is used by many instructors as a useful educational tool, there is much room for research on how learning actually occurs within collaborative learning environments. This paper attempts to explore the relationship(if any) between task structure and collaborative group interactions in a synchronous peer interaction collaborative learning environment. For this reason, we used the Cmap during a Physics course for Grade 12 students. This paper compares two groups of students, one studying concept maps with single answer task, and the other studying concept maps with variable answer task. The aim of the study presented in this article is to also investigate the influence of task structure on students’ interactivity according to certain indicators and cognitive performance.     

Cognition in Context: Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Goal Structures and Reported Cognitive Strategy Use in the College Classroom

This study examined contextual and personal factors related to the use of cognitive strategies by undergraduates. Specifically, students’ goal orientations (intrinsic or extrinsic) and perceptions of the classroom environment (i.e., task or performance structured) were evaluated as predictors of student use of deep or surface level cognitive strategies. Results confirmed earlier work, which indicated intrinsic goal orientation was related to use of deep cognitive strategies and extrinsic goal orientation was related to use of rehearsal. There was no interaction between intrinsic and extrinsic goal orientations on use of either cognitive strategy. In addition, students’ perceptions of classroom environment were significantly correlated with students’ goal orientations. In particular, task structure of classrooms was significantly positively correlated with use of both types of cognitive strategies. Thus, student goal orientation, perception of classroom structure, and use of cognitive strategies appear interdependent, with intrinsic goal orientation moderating the effect of perceived classroom structure on the use of deep cognitive strategies. Results of this study suggest the need for university instructors to be more aware of the roles of both personal and contextual factors affecting student motivation and learning.     

The Interpersonal Dynamics of Collaborative Reasoning in Peer Interactive Dyads

The authors investigated the microlevel processes of collaborative reasoning in heterogeneous peer dyads working on an open-design task in elementary geometry. Special attention was paid to the nature of student social interaction, problem-solving strategies, and mathematical language and how they shape collaborative problem-solving processes. Qualitative case-based analyses of 3 focal dyads reveal that collaborative reasoning was supported by equal participation in social interaction, consisting of joint negotiation of problem-solving strategies and active conceptualization and visualization of the situation. Challenges to collaboration were manifested in the existence of divergent strategies and verbal conceptualizations where negotiation did not lead to the construction of a shared understanding. In summary, the study demonstrates the power of microlevel process analyses in revealing the interpersonal dynamics of collaborative reasoning and shows how those dynamics mediate the learning opportunities in peer interactive dyads.     

Student Use of Scaffolding Software: Relationships with Motivation and Conceptual Understanding

This study was designed to theoretically articulate and empirically assess the role of computer scaffolds. In this project, several examples of educational software were developed to scaffold the learning of students performing high level cognitive activities. The software used in this study, Artemis, focused on scaffolding the learning of students as they performed information seeking activities. As 5th grade students traveled through a project-based science unit on photosynthesis, researchers used a pre-post design to test for both student motivation and student conceptual understanding of photosynthesis. To measure both variables, a motivation survey and three methods of concept map analysis were used. The student use of the scaffolding features was determined using a database that tracked students’ movement between scaffolding tools. The gain scores of each dependent variable was then correlated to the students’ feature use (time and hits) embedded in the Artemis Interface. This provided the researchers with significant relationships between the scaffolding features represented in the software and student motivation and conceptual understanding of photosynthesis. There were a total of three significant correlations in comparing the scaffolding use by hits (clicked on) with the dependent variables and only one significant correlation when comparing the scaffold use in time. The first significant correlation (r = .499, p < .05) was between the saving/viewing features hits and the students’ task value. This correlation supports the assumption that there is a positive relationship between the student use of the saving/viewing features and the students’ perception of how interesting, how important, and how useful the task is. The second significant correlation (r = 0.553, p < 0.01) was between the searching features hits and the students’ self-efficacy for learning and performance. This correlation supports the assumption that there is a positive relationship between the student use of the searching features and the students’ perception of their ability to accomplish a task as well as their confidence in their skills to perform that task. The third significant correlation (r = 0.519, p < 0.05) was between the collaborative features hits and the students’ essay performance scores. This correlation supports the assumption that there is a positive relationship between the student use of the collaborative features and the students’ ability to perform high cognitive tasks. Finally, the last significant correlation (r = 0.576, p < 0.01) was between the maintenance features time and the qualitative analysis of the concept maps. This correlation supports the assumption that there is a positive relationship between the student use of the maintenance features and student conceptual understanding of photosynthesis. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (REC9980055). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.     

“I Heard it through the Grapevine”: Doctoral Student Socialization in Chemistry and History

Twenty doctoral students in the disciplines of chemistry and history were interviewed to better understand the socialization processes that influence their success and how these processes differ by year in the degree program and disciplinary culture. Five major themes emerged describing these socialization processes and how they facilitate or impede degree success, including Ambiguity, describing the programmatic guidelines and expectations that surrounded much of the students’ experience; Balance, pointing to the students’ need to balance graduate school responsibilities along with external relationships and demands; Independence, describing the students’ desire to find equilibrium as they transitioned to the role of independent scholar; Development, highlighting the significant cognitive, personal, and professional development that occurs in these students’ graduate experience; and Support, describing the faculty, peer, and financial support needed for the students’ success in their degree programs. Suggestions for policy, practice, and further research are discussed.     

Connecting the dots: social network structure,conflict, and group cognitive complexity

The current paper combines arguments from the social capital and group cognition literature to explain two different processes through which communication network structures and intra group conflict influence groups’ cognitive complexity (GCC). We test in a sample of 44 groups the mediating role of intra group conflict in the relationship between communication network density and fragmentation on the one hand and groups’ cognitive complexity on the other hand. The results show that network fragmentation has a positive effect on GCC by fostering task conflict, while network density has a positive impact on GCC by reducing relationship conflict in student groups. The paper makes an important contribution to both theory and practice in the field of collaborative learning, by exploring how groups’ affective and a cognitive dynamics impact on emergent collective cognitive structures.     

Chinese students’ perception of out-of-class groupwork in Australia

Despite increasing number of mainland Chinese students studying in western tertiary settings, there is limited information available on their learning experiences and responses to popular educational practices in these contexts. There is an assumption in the literature that Chinese students respond well to the collaborative demands of groupwork due to the collectivist nature of their culture, however there are few reports to substantiate this claim. This paper reports on mainland Chinese students’ perception of groupwork in two Australian tertiary settings. Thirteen students from mainland China were interviewed on their groupwork experiences. All interviews were completed in either Mandarin or Cantonese. Two types of groupwork were identified: assignment groupwork (AGW) and student generated groupwork (SGGW). Three criteria for collaboration: level of interaction, construction of knowledge and a shared goal were used to search for signs of collaborative elements in the Chinese students’ recall of their groupwork experience. Indicators of collaboration were identified in the reports of AGWs but were less consistent in SGGWs. The findings of this study suggest that Chinese students perceive out-of-class groupwork in an Australian context as a positive learning experience, reporting enhanced understanding of academic contents, application of knowledge and socializing with other Chinese students.     

Reconsidering conceptual change from a socio-cultural perspective: analyzing students’ meaning making in genetics in collaborative learning activities

In the learning sciences, students’ understanding of scientific concepts has often been approached in terms of conceptual change. These studies are grounded in a cognitive or a socio-cognitive approach to students’ understanding and imply a focus on the individuals’ mental representations of scientific concepts and ideas. We approach students’ conceptual change from a socio-cultural perspective as they make new meaning in genetics. Adhering to a socio-cultural perspective, we emphasize the discursive and interactional aspects of human learning and understanding. This perspective implies that the focus is on students’ meaning making processes in collaborative learning activities. In the study, we conduct an analysis of a group of students’ who interact while working to solve problems in genetics. In our analyses we emphasize four analytical aspects of the students’ meaning making: (a) the students’ use of resources in problematizing, (b) teacher interventions, (c) changes in interactional accomplishments, and (d) the institutional aspect of meaning making. Our findings suggest that students’ meaning making surrounding genetics concepts relates not only to an epistemic concern but also to an interactional and an institutional concern.

Inquiry-Based Learning and Undergraduates’ Professional Identity Development: Assessment of a Field Research-Based Course

Innovative strategies in inquiry-based learning are recognized as improving the quality of higher education learning, but there is a need to explore whether and how these strategies promote the development of professional identity among undergraduates. In this article we describe an inquiry-based course, situated in a European context, which is designed to support students’ professional identity development through reflective practice; and we present the assessment of students’ learning outcomes. Results highlight the key roles of field research, peer groups, and a narrative approach in promoting positive student attitudes toward reflecting on their production of knowledge and in developing their professional identity.     

Roommate Effects on Grades: Evidence from First-Year Housing Assignments

This paper estimates the effect of students’ background characteristics on the academic outcomes of their college roommates. It uses data from four classes of students at Wellesley College, where roommate assignment is credibly random, conditional on student responses to a housing preference form. In linear specifications, there are no peer effects on students’ grade point averages. There is some evidence that students’ SAT scores have nonlinear effect on their roommates’ achievement, but the results are not robust. We conclude that roommate peer effects might exist among small groups of students, but they are not a key determinant of students’ average academic outcomes at Wellesley College.     

Learning through collaboration: student perspectives

This research examines the effectiveness of collaborative learning pedagogies from the perspective of students. There is a rich history of research on collaborative learning demonstrating the effectiveness and this has led to indexing educational quality by student engagement. However, the findings from this study question the efficacy of collaborative pedagogies in their actual implementation. While collaboration was a part of the most highly rated learning experiences, these pedagogies were typically described as ineffective. Key factors that students see associated with effective collaboration are reported. The students’ perceptions of learning as reflected in their comments on collaborative learning, implications for setting expectations for college learning, and needs for faculty development are discussed.     

Investigating children's musical interactions within the activities systems of group composing and arranging: An application of Engeström's Activity Theory

This article applies Engeström's Activity Theory (AT) as an analytical lens to identify defining characteristics of the collaborative creative music making activities of composing and arranging. Attention is paid to the complex interrelationships among the various elements of interaction in children's collaborative creative music making as evidenced in group composing (where the activity features generation and revision of new musical material) and arranging (where the activity features creative use of existing musical material) are differentiated tasks. These include, for example, tool use in response to different tasks, the rules that govern peer collaboration, and the division of labour experienced among key players in the co-construction of decisions. Exemplary cases are sampled from data sets drawn from two separate sites one of which features a group composing task with fifth graders in a USA urban school and the other a group arranging task with eighth graders in a UK urban school. This micro-analysis is less concerned with the differences of collaborative interaction in varying cultural settings than with exploring the micro-analysis of social and language processes that characterise these differentiated creative tasks and the related activity systems. The activity system, or systems of social relations, is the unit of analysis applied across comparison-group cases using ethnographic observation, and discourse and event analysis. Analysis of the data indicates that composing and arranging involve differentiated activity systems. Important defining characteristics of the collaborative interactions, as outcomes of the children's approach to the task activities, are identified. Conclusions indicate that the application of an activity theory research perspective can provide a useful framework to make sense of the interrelated elements that characterise interaction in peer collaboration.     

Group work does not necessarily equal collaborative learning: evidence from observations and self-reports

Situative and sociocognitive analyses were combined to examine engagement in high-level collaborative learning and its relationship with individuals’ cognitions. Video footage of 53 science university students’ (nine groups) collaborative learning interactions as they worked through a case-based project was analysed in combination with students’ appraisals and reflections on the activity. Sizeable group differences in amount of high-level discussion of learning content were revealed. Individual high-level contributions were positively correlated with overall unit performance. Motivation at task onset predicted amount but not depth of content-related group discussion. Interviews with participants suggested that groups’ divergent patterns of engagement with content could be related to different perceptions of the notion of collaborative learning. Results are discussed in terms of implications for collaborative learning research and educational practice.     

Tacit models,treasured intuitions and the discrete—continuous interplay

We explore conditions for productive synthesis between formal reasoning and intuitive representations through analysis of college students’ understanding of the limit concept in the definition of the derivative. In particular, we compare and contrast cognitive processes that accompany different manifestations of persistence of intuitions and tacit models that coexist with students’ logical reasoning. The students are highly trained in mathematics. We encounter expressions of the persistence and impact of intuitions and tacit pictorial models as described by Fischbein. But we also observe some new characterization of persistence of tacit models in which the tacit pictorial model continues to interfere in the student’s reasoning process, coexists with a logical reasoning but does not prevent the student from reaching a feeling of logical consistency. The empirical analysis and the theoretical discussion offered in the present paper permit us to highlight this very special integration of the formal and the intuitive components of the reasoning process.     

Motivational beliefs and cognitive processes in mathematics achievement, analyzed in the context of cultural differences: a Korean elementary school example

The relations among students’ motivational beliefs, cognitive processes, and academic achievement were investigated. A 51-item questionnaire together with a mathematics achievement test was administered to 459 fifth graders in Korean elementary school mathematics classrooms. Results indicated that, in general, students’ cognitive processes related closely to competence beliefs, task values, and achievement goals, and more importantly their success or failure in mathematics achievement was closely linked to competence beliefs, performance-avoidance goals, and persistence strategies. Positive evidence of performance-approach goals was observed in math learning relative to task goals. As expected, performance-avoidance goals turned out to be detrimental to students’ math learning. These findings are generally congruent with the motivational theories and support the position that students should be encouraged to adopt task goals and actively involve themselves in math class activities. However, it also behooves us to recognize the potential benefits of performance-approach goals in different cultural contexts, such as the Korean elementary school math classrooms.     

Inter-relations of tutor’s and peers’ scaffolding and decision-making discourse acts

This study investigates the mechanisms of scaffolding in a synchronous network-based environment – the ‘collaborative virtual workplace’. A theoretical ‘multi-actor’ scaffolding model was formulated. The study itself focused on the role and inter-relations of verbal scaffolding by tutor and peers during a collaborative process of making decisions about environmental issues. The analysis drew on data from the decision-making discussions of 31 groups – material that was saved automatically by the learning environment software. The age of the 62 students ranged from 14 to 17. Discourse act categories were devised to describe the tutor’s and the students’ task-related, supportive and social communicative acts. The scaffolding situation was characterized through a causal discourse act interaction approach. Tutor and students appeared to be elaborating and replacing each other’s process scaffolding acts in the collaborative decision-making situation. The influence of certain tutor’s and students’ inter-related scaffolding patterns on students’ decision-making provided empirical support for the ‘multi-actor’ scaffolding model. in final form: 12 May 2005     

“Accepting Emotional Complexity”: A Socio-Constructivist Perspective on the Role of Emotions in the Mathematics Classroom

A socio-constructivist account of learning and emotions stresses the situatedness of every learning activity and points to the close interactions between cognitive, conative and affective factors in students’ learning and problem solving. Emotions are perceived as being constituted by the dynamic interplay of cognitive, physiological, and motivational processes in a specific context. Understanding the role of emotions in the mathematics classroom then implies understanding the nature of these situated processes and the way they relate to students’ problem-solving behaviour. We will present data from a multiple-case study of 16 students out of 4 different junior high classes that aimed to investigate students’ emotional processes when solving a mathematical problem in their classrooms. After identifying the different emotions and analyzing their relations to motivational and cognitive processes, the relation with students’ mathematics-related beliefs will be examined. We will specifically use Frank’s case to illustrate how the use of a thoughtful combination of a variety of different research instruments enabled us to gather insightful data on the role of emotions in mathematical problem solving.