Abstract
This paper operationalized the notion of knowledge convergence and assessed quantitatively how much knowledge convergence occurred during collaborative learning. Knowledge convergence was defined as an increase in common knowledge where common knowledge referred to the knowledge that all collaborating partners had. Twenty pairs of college students collaborated to learn a science text about the human circulatory system. Comparisons of individual pre-test and post-test performance revealed that students shared more knowledge pieces and mental models after collaboration. Although the amount of convergence was modest, analyses showed that collaborative interaction was responsible for the increase in common knowledge. The increase in common knowledge was observed in knowledge that was never stated in the learning text as well as in knowledge that was explicitly presented in the text. The amount of convergence was related to interaction such that real pairs shared more knowledge than nominal pairs, and more interactive pairs shared more inferred knowledge than less interactive pairs. Collaborative dialogues and learning artifacts (e.g., drawings) also indicated that common knowledge was constructed during collaboration. Possible reasons for the discrepancy between the impression of strong convergence assumed in the literature and the results of this study are discussed along with the need to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the notion that includes its process, outcome, and sources of convergence.
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Acknowledgements
Part of this research was funded by the National Science Foundation (BCS 9978462) and Hallym University Research Fund (HRF-2005-05) awarded to the first author. We thank David Klahr and Dick Moreland for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript and John Levine for letting us use his wonderful lab facility as well as for his comments. We also thank Alexandra Vincent with her help with the reliability coding.
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Appendix: Instruction for collaborative learning session
Appendix: Instruction for collaborative learning session
Today you will be working together to learn about the human circulatory system. Your goal is to understand the circulatory system, that is, to understand what the parts are, how they each work, how the system as a whole works, and what its purpose is. You will be reading excerpts from a high school biology textbook. The text will be presented one sentence at a time so that you can think about each new piece of information and how it fits into your understanding of the circulatory system. You are allowed to look back to previous pages, and you may take notes or draw pictures. However, the text and your notes will not be available when you are tested.
Please read each line of the text aloud and discuss it with your partner. Explain out loud to your partner what that line means to you and how it relates to what you already know about the circulatory system. You might already know some useful information that your partner does not. It is important to talk about things even if they seem unimportant. It is very important for you to work together as a team to help each other to learn the materials. Talk over differences in your ideas or explanations and try to reach a shared understanding.
I have included a few sample questions to give you some ideas of what kinds of questions will be asked later. Try to learn the material in such a way that both of you can answer them at the end of the session. The answers to these questions may not be directly stated in the text, and you might have to make some inferences to answer them correctly.
Sample questions
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(1)
From the heart, where does blood travel in pulmonary circulation?
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(2)
Why is it less dangerous for a capillary to get clogged than an artery?
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(3)
What causes the black and blue mark you get when you run or bump into something?
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Jeong, H., Chi, M.T.H. Knowledge convergence and collaborative learning. Instr Sci 35, 287–315 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-006-9008-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-006-9008-z