Collaboration: Activity Designs and Pedagogy to Enhance Small-Group Learning

• In Event: Learning Mathematics Through Networked Classroom Activities: 10 Years of Progress?

Abstract

Classroom networks afford novel forms of interaction among students and between students and teachers. Students can use locally networked handheld devices to jointly construct, examine, manipulate and exchange shared mathematical objects. These shared objects, displayed either on individual student device screens or in a public display at the front of a classroom, can in turn form the basis for groups of students to participate in a variety of investigations, problem-solving activities, or discussions aimed at cultivating understanding of important mathematical ideas. For much of the last decade, and over two different handheld device platforms, we have conducted a design research program to investigate the potential for supporting collective and collaborative forms of classroom activity with networks.
Our approach to classroom network design places special emphasis on small groups of two to four students. While instructional activity oriented toward student work in small groups has been effectively implemented in many settings, the shortcomings and challenges of facilitating classroom collaboration have also been well documented (Barron, 2003; Salomon & Globerson, 1989). Our learning activity designs investigate the potential to address these challenges by using classroom networking tools to distribute resources and responsibilities for collective action, and to create conditions for productive interaction and equitable participation within student groups. In a series of classroom-based design experiments, we have found that distributing mathematical objects across group members’ devices can augment and enrich discursive interaction among participants (White, 2006) and support student learning about mathematical relationships (White & Pea, in press; White, Wallace & Lai, in press).
Importantly, though, collaborative learning in a classroom network does not simply replicate or enhance its offline alternative. The novel and dynamic forms of interaction afforded by network technology demand corresponding shifts in pedagogy, and present not only new opportunities but also new challenges for teachers seeking to implement them. Our most recent work seeks to unpack these issues through a researcher-teacher study (Ball, 2000) focused on examining the possibilities and subtleties of orchestrating classroom activity in a classroom network. We will report on both pedagogical and methodological insights emerging from this work.

Author

• Tobin White, University of California - Davis