What Do You Mean by “Collaborative Learning” ? Pierre Dillenbourg University of Geneva, Switzerland Dillenbourg P. (1999) What do you mean by collaborative learning?. In P. Dillenbourg (Ed) Collaborative-learning: Cognitive and Computational Approaches. (pp.1-19). Oxford: Elsevier

Collaborative learning A broad definition but unsatisfactory: a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together "two or more“ ? a pair, a small group (3-5), a class, a community a society.. ? "learn something" "follow a course", "study course material", "perform learning activities such as problem solving“… ? "together“ face-to-face or computer mediated, synchronous or not, frequent in time or not …?

A definition of collaboration “Collaboration is a coordinated, synchronous activity that is the result of a continued attempt to construct and maintain a shared conception of a problem" Roschelle's & Teasley's (1995, p. 70) Roschelle, J. & Teasley S.D. (1995) The construction of shared knowledge in collaborative problem solving. In C.E. O'Malley (Ed), Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning. (pp. 69-197). Berlin: Springer-Verlag

Three dimensions of exploration the Scale of the collaborative situation Type of ‘Learning‘ activity Type of ‘Collaboration' Scale Learning Collaboration

Variety of Scales

Time scale & Sample sizes Studies with different scales : from 2 to 30 subjects, from 20 minutes to one year Most empirical research on the effectiveness of collaborative learning was concerned with a small scale: …of two to five subjects collaborating for one hour or so

Generalizability ? Different scales reduces generalizability of studies Researchers need different theoretical tools in order to grasp phenomena on various scales Generalizability is been affected by divergent underlying theories Psychology  small groups analysis Social psychology theories  broader groups Theories from sociology, ethnology or anthropology  larger scales

The notion of scale has been the “Berlin Wall” ……but it fell in late ’80s "... research paradigms built on supposedly clear distinctions between what is social and what is cognitive will have an inherent weakness, because the causality of social and cognitive processes is, at the very least, circular and is perhaps even more complex" (Perret-Clermont, Perret & Bell, 1991,p. 50). This evolution is illustrated by the emergence of distributed cognition theories (Salomon, 1993) in which the group is viewed as a cognitive system.

Theoretical constructs across different scales… The notion of group memory as compared to the notion of individual memory group memory  “working” memory + interaction memory …the notion of culture is applied to describe the common grounds built by peers in interaction …distributed cognition theories in which the group is viewed as a cognitive system …or - reciprocally - view the individual as a distributed system The idea that thinking can be viewed as a dialogue with oneself is not a new idea

Variety of meanings for “learning”

Various meanings of “learning” …any collaborative activity within an educational context such as studying course material or sharing course assignments. joint problem solving learning is expected to occur as a side-effect of problem solving …measured by the elicitation of new knowledge or by the improvement of problem solving performance learning from collaborative work the lifelong acquisition of expertise within a professional community

is it a pedagogical method or a psychological process? Collaborative learning is not one single mechanism Cognitive systems learn because they perform some activities (reading, building, predicting, ...) which trigger some learning mechanisms (induction, deduction, compilation,...) Collaborative learning is not a method …because of the low predictability of specific types of interactions Basically, collaborative learning takes the form of instructions to subjects - a kind of social contract

The essential concern of collaborative learning as a didactical method the words 'collaborative learning' describe a situation in which particular forms of interaction among people are expected to occur which would trigger learning mechanisms,… … but there is no guarantee that the expected interactions will actually occur… …hence, a general concern is to develop ways to increase the probability that some types of interaction occur

Interactions  Cognitive Processes (Learning Mechanisms) Interactions (Activities) Reading Building Predicting Explanation Argumentation Disagreement Mutual regulation Reciprocal tutoring ……………………………. Cognitive Processes (Learning mechanisms) Induction Deduction Compilation Knowledge elicitation Internalization …………………….

The variety of meanings for 'Collaboration'

“Collaborative” concerns four aspects of learning setting (1) A Situation … can be characterized as more or less collaborative e.g. peer collaboration vs. boss-employee or teacher-student (2) The Interactions …between the group members can be more or less collaborative e.g. negotiation vs. giving instructions (3) Some learning Mechanisms (processes) …are more intrinsically collaborative e.g. grounding vs. induction (4) The Effects of collaborative learning Divergent views on how to measure the effects of collaboration

(1) Criteria for characterizing situations as "collaborative" Symmetry in the interaction Symmetry of action, knowledge, status, etc. Shared/common goals & understanding Through the negotiation of goals, agents develop shared goals AND become mutually aware of their shared goals & understanding Division of labour among group members Cooperation vs. Collaboration

Collaboration vs. Cooperation Agent 1 Agent 2 Higher-level: Coaching Agent 1 Collaboration Lower-level: Task Agent 2

(2) Criteria for characterizing interactions as "collaborative" Degree of Interactivity a collaborative situation should be quite interactive The extent to which these interactions influence the peers' cognitive processes Degree of Synchronicity 'doing something together' implies synchronous communication …the feeling of reasoning synchronously increases the process of mutual modeling Degree of Negotiability collaborative interactions are negotiable one partner will not impose his view on the sole basis of his authority, but will - to some extent - argue for his standpoint

Space of Misunderstanding and the notion of “Optimal collaborative effort” … a collaborative learning situation should not eliminate (if possible) the probability of misunderstanding …but instead leave the space for misunderstanding Why? Sustain the subjects' efforts to overcome miscommunication

(3a) Learning mechanisms (processes) characterized as "collaborative" studied first in inter-individual plane and extended to intra-individual, social plane Induction pairs draw more abstract representations of the problem at hand, because their joint drawing had to integrate what was common to the representations built by each individual. Cognitive load In collaboration, the horizontal division of labour reduces the amount of processing performed by each individual the interaction with other group members increases the cognitive load Schnotz (1997) observed that while individuals perform better with animated pictures than with static pictures, pairs perform better with static pictures / Why?

(3b) Learning processes specific to social interactions Internalisation the "transfer" of tools from the social plane (interaction with others) to the inner plane (reasoning), since this process implies social interaction. Appropriation an agent reinterprets his own action or utterance under the light of what his “expert” partner does or says Similar to ‘grounding’, i.e. when a concept becomes part of the common grounds of the partners through Mutual modelling Building a model of the partner Usually developed only up to the point where it needs to be developed to succeed in performing the task at hand

Effects of collaborative learning – methodological issues effects of what ? Researchers need to zoom in the collaborative interactions in order to gain better understanding of the underlying mechanisms. The effects of collaborative learning are often assessed by individual task performance measures It has been objected that a more valid assessment would be to measure group performance (?)

Overview – Collaborative Learning Various scales Theoretical concepts are imported across different scales Various meanings of 'learning' Collaborative learning is not one single mechanism - not a method Develop ways to increase the probability that some types of peer interaction occur Various meanings of 'collaboration‘ Situation / Interactions / Learning mechanisms / Effects of collaborative learning