Learning and Technology Computer Supported Collaborative Learning

Learning and Technology

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning

Paradigms in Educational Computing

‘60s – Computer Assisted Learning (CAL)

‘70s – Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS)

‘80s – Interactive Learning Environments (ILEs)

‘90s – Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)

Theories of Collaborative Learning

• Sociocognitive theory– Jean Piaget– Wilhelm Doise & Gabriel Mugny

• Sociocultural theory– Lev Vygotsky– Barbara Rogoff

• Situated learning– Lev Vygotsky – Jean Lave

Socio-Cognitive TheorySocio-Cognitive Theory

• Piagetian theory – Piaget (1926, 1932)

• Restructuring of prior knowledge requires challenging existing views and coordinating old with new knowledge (Piaget, 1977)

• These conditions will be present if children interact with peers of differing but also inadequate views (Piaget, 1932)

Learning mechanismsLearning mechanisms

• Social interaction leads to a recognition of alternative perspectives

• Recognition of alternative perspectives leads to mutual challenge (cognitive conflict)

• Mutual challenge of perspectives motivates coordination of alternatives to arrive at a solution


• Inter-individual conflict is a more powerful stimulus for cognitive change than intra-individual conflict– Social conflict is harder to ignore than

individual conflict– Partner can provide cues for solving the

problem– The child is more likely to be actively

involved in the joint task

Task characteristicsTask characteristics

• Perspective-taking tasks• Conservation and coordination tasks• Planning tasks• Problem-solving tasks

Perspective Taking

Piaget’s ‘three mountains’ task

a

b c

Implications for learningImplications for learning

"Criticism is born of discussion, and discussion is only possible among equals"(Piaget, 1932, p. 409) – Participants should be at an equivalent

intellectual level (shared understanding)– Participants should recognise that they should not

contradict themselves– Participants should recognise the need to reach

agreement or find ways of justifying their different points of view

– Reciprocity between participants


• Tasks should be designed to promote differences in perspectives or solutions

• Tasks should involve opportunity for discussion of competing hypotheses or solutions

• Participants should be at equivalent intellectual levels


• Symmetrical or assymmetrical peers?• Differing vs similar views• What is meant by "cognitive conflict"?• Conflict in predictions vs conflict in

conceptions – Howe et al. (1993)

• Equivalence in developmental level vs equivalence in expertise– Verba & Winnykamen (1992)

How can technology help?How can technology help?

• Catalyst for discussion of competing solutions• Role differentiation• Making hypotheses and predictions explicit• Providing opportunities to disconfirm

hypotheses or obtain correct solutions

Sociocultural Theories

"What children can do with others today, they can do alone tomorrow"(Vygotsky, 1962, p. 104)


• Development proceeds from the inter-psychological to the intra-psychological

• Focus on the joint construction (co-construction) of solutions

• Attempts to coordinate perspectives and co-construct hypotheses to arrive at a joint answer are more valuable than simply differences in perspectives


• Causal relationship between the social and the cognitive

• The "zone of proximal development"• The "general genetic law of cultural

development"• Semiotic mediation

The Zone of Proximal Development

"...the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers." (Vygotsky, 1978)

The Zone of Proximal DevelopmentThe Zone of Proximal Development

• ZOPD as a "leading activity" (Leontiev)• Related ideas

– Scaffolding (Bruner)– Contingent instruction

(Wood, Bruner & Ross, 1976)– Apprenticeship (Rogoff, 1990)

The Genetic Law of Cultural DevelopmentThe Genetic Law of Cultural Development

• Development appears on two planes:first on the inter-psychological, then on the intra-psychological (Vygotsky)

• The individual's appropriation of what takes place on the social plane involves an active transformation

Internalisation

• Properties of the social world are not simply transferred"The process of internalisation is not the

transferral of an external activity to a preexisting, internal 'plane of consciousness': it is the process in which this internal plane is formed." (Leontiev, 1981, p. 57)

Semiotic mediationSemiotic mediation

• Mediation as a "psychological tool"• Intersubjectivity

– Vygotsky —intersubjectivity as a process that takes place between people

– Piaget — perspective-taking & decentration as individual processes working on socially-derived information

Task characteristics

• Skill acquisition• Joint planning & co-construction• Memory• Task x age interactions?


• Assymmetrical dyads (adult or more competent peer) vs symmetrical dyads

• Peer tutoring vs peer collaboration– Peer tutoring most effective when learners

need to acquire new information or skills that do not extend beyond their conceptual reach (Damon, 1984; Rogoff, 1990)

• Differences in domain expertisevs differences in general intellectual level

• Developmental constraints?

Development of collaborative learning

Skills underlying effective collaboration and peer tutoring

• Coordinating mental representations– Piaget; Flavell; Doise & Mugny

• Understanding mental states– Tomasello

• Self- and other-regulation– Vygotsky; Rogoff

• Executive function & self-inhibition– Russell

Predictions

• Effective tutoring involves– Skill in the task– Planning ahead– Monitoring learner’s actions– Modifying next step– Inhibiting temptation to do the task

• Clear changes should emerge between 3 and 7 years

Peer tutoring in 3-7 year olds

Proportion of instructional moves

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Show (5,4,3) Tell (2,1)

3 years5 years7 years

Proportion of instructional moves

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5 4 3 2 1

3 years5 years7 years

Contingent Instruction

Contingent Non-contingentTutor Learner Tutor Learner

4c -- 4c ---- success -- success3c -- 5n ---- success -- in trouble1c -- 1n ---- in trouble -- wrong blocks2c -- 1n ---- wrong construct -- success3c -- 3n --

Rate of Contingent Instruction

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3 year olds 5 year olds 7 year olds

Summary

• Children who found the task easier to learn were more effective tutors

• Task sharing difficult for 3 & 5 year olds• Systematic planning emerges at 5 years• High proportion of self-regulatory speech in 3 & 5

year olds; replaced by other-regulation by 7 years• 3 & 5 year olds teach by demonstration; 7 year olds

better at watching and telling (self-inhibition)• 7 year olds were highly contingent in tutoring• 5 year olds learn effectively from observing others

Theory of Mind and Collaborative Play

Predictions

• Children who pass ToM (TT pairs) should show greater sustainment of shared task focus than those who fail (XX pairs)

• TT pairs should show greater levels of reciprocity in interactions than XX pairs

• Pairing a child who fails ToM with one who passes (TX) should improve the dyad’s collaboration over XX pairs

Method

• 24 same-gender friendship pairs– TT (both pass) 4;0 - 5;0– TX (pass/fail) 3;10 - 4;11– XX (fail/fail) 3;6 - 4;11

• 15-20 min sessions of dyadic play with props for bathing/changing a doll

• Videotapes coded for– Joint attention– Shared task focus– Reciprocity of play

Coding Scheme

Visual Regard

Divided Visual attention divided / different

Sharedscan

Both children scanningenvironment or looking at E

Sharedprops

Mutual attention on shared props

Sharedpartner

Looking at same props andmaking eye contact with partner

Coding Scheme

Social Play

Non-interactive

Uninvolved with specific person,object or activity

Object Each child engaged with differentobjects and playing alone

Person Engaged in person play / verbalplay only

Coordinated Coordinated partner-object play

Social Play

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Non-interactive

Object Person Coordinated

XX

TT

TX

**

**

Coding of play bids

Turn 1Initiate bid

Turn 2Partnerresponse

Turn 3Initiatorreaction

Reciprocitycode

Persists ReciprocalPartneraccepts Does not

persistPassive

Persists Non-reciprocal

Deliberateattempt toengagepartner inplay Partner does

not accept Does notpersist

Terminated

Reciprocity in Play

0

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Reciprocal Passive Non-reciprocal

Terminated

XXTTTX

**

**

**

Summary

• Composition of dyads with respect to ToM status leads to differences in quality of social play– XX pairs show less co-ordinated play and joint

attention– TT and TX pairs engage in more shared visual

attention and co-ordinated play – XX pairs initiate fewer play bids than TT and TX

pairs– XX pairs show less reciprocity in play bids than TT

and TX pairs– TT pairs show more reciprocal bid sequences than

TX pairs

Conclusions• The ability of a child to provide contingent support

for a peer’s learning emerges at 6-7 years• Developmental trend in the emergence of

sustained task sharing, self- and other- regulation between 3 and 7 years

• Emergence of collaborative learning & contingent tutoring linked to development of– Understanding mental states in others

– Self-regulation

– Skills in referential communication

How can technology help?How can technology help?

• Instructional support– Guided discovery learning– Scaffolding– Contingent control of instruction

• Tools for (re)mediation

Situated Learning• The mutual knowledge problem

– Communication depends upon a "common ground" of mutually-held knowledge(Krauss & Fussell, 1990)

• Distributed cognition– Joint construction of a problem interpretation(Hutchins, 1991; Pea, 1993)

• Situated cognition– Competent performance of real word tasks

"is an emergent property of moment-by-moment interactions between actors, and between actors and the environments of their action"

(Suchman, 1987, p. 179)

Problems for cognitive psychology

• Practical action is not always driven by plans• People aren’t very good at formal reasoning• Transfer of knowledge from context to context

is hard to achieve• Ecological validity is problematic because we

treat context as a ‘nuisance variable’

Characteristics of a contextual approach

• recognition of the relationship between psychological processes and their social, cultural and historical settings

• explanation of how different contexts create and reflect different forms of mental functioning

• explanation of how human action is mediated via context

The culture of learning

just plain folks

causal stories

situations

negotiable meanings

socially constructed understanding

students

laws

symbols

fixed meanings

immutable concepts

practitionerscausal models

conceptual situations

negotiable meanings

socially constructed understanding

"take three-quarters of two-thirds of a cup of cottage cheese"

3/4 x 2/3

OR

Situated Problem Solving

Cognition and Context• situations shape activities• relation between the problem solver and the

problem• salience of the activity varies in different

settings• theories of situated cognition do not preclude

knowledge which is invariant across related situations (i.e., abstractions); they argue instead that knowledge in the abstract is insufficent for competent practice

Implications for LearningImplications for Learning

• Learning occurs most effectively in situations resembling those of eventual practice

• Learning should involve "legitimate peripheral participation" in communities of practice(Lave & Wenger, 1991)

• Learning occurs when the learner is confronted with a "problematic" situation

• Argument for collaboration– Situated action is inherently social– Learning is a special case of situated action

How can technology help?

• Technology can provide access to authentic situations of practice

• Example - Schoolchildren interacting with scientists over the Internet

Dimensions of CSCL Applications

• Locus of use (space)– Intra-classroom– Inter-classroom– Extra-classroom

• Context of use (time)– Synchronous– Asynchronous

• Role of Technology– Problem Presentation– Mediated Communication– Representational Formalism– Etc.

Shared ARK

Supporting• co-construction of

problem solutions

Through• shared workspaces• multiple representations• joint tasks• structured discussion

Figure 1: A sequence of views in KidPad as we zoom into a simple story (from left to right, and then top to bottom)

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Learning and Technology Computer Supported Collaborative Learning