Abstract
Finding common ground, or grounding, among individuals engaged in an activity is essential to productive collaboration. Many studies have analysed grounding processes as a site of collaborative learning and have focused mainly on its cognitive aspects. However, to enhance our understanding of students’ learning processes, the intellectual activity must be viewed along with the social and cultural contexts in which it is naturally embedded. In this chapter, we present a descriptive case study exploring, from a sociocultural perspective, grounding engaged by a group of Primary 3 pupils (aged 9) in a problem-solving task. The task was designed into a scenario-based inquiry (SBI) lesson. The SBI approach showcases in video narrative format an everyday context-related problem that students need to investigate. The accompanying collaborative inquiry activity is intended to aid them in deepening their understanding of science concepts and developing skills for integrating and applying science knowledge. Data were collected on the day of implementation of an SBI lesson on the topic Properties of Materials using video and audiotape recordings of group work. The analysis of one group’s discourse focused on both the linguistic and sociocultural aspects for the joint accomplishment of the problem-solving task. Our findings indicate that their grounding processes involve resolving differences by drawing upon shared everyday experiences and marshalling them as bases for propositions and meanings, employing rhetorical strategies for informal argumentation discourse, mobilizing past rehearsed modes of decision making to reach consensus and building identities as knowledgeable and communicatively competent persons among peers. We discuss our insights about these findings with respect to pedagogical supports that could address issues on student collaboration in classroom problem-solving contexts.
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Talaue, F.T., Kim, M., Aik-Ling, T. (2015). Finding Common Ground During Collaborative Problem Solving: Pupils’ Engagement in Scenario-Based Inquiry. In: Cho, Y., Caleon, I., Kapur, M. (eds) Authentic Problem Solving and Learning in the 21st Century. Education Innovation Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-521-1_8
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