Seeking, Negotiating, and Generating Common Ground. Microanalyses of Communication Dynamics with a View to Emergent Cooperation (original) (raw)
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13. Aspects of Collaboration in Pedagogical Discourse
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 2004
In this review of research, various aspects of collaboration are discussed to understand more completely the phenomenon of jointly constructed activity in pedagogical contexts. This chapter presents the parameter for collaborations, differentiates collaboration from interaction, and reviews studies organized into three themes: collaboration and community, collaboration and language development, and collaboration and identity. Concepts taken from sociocultural theory provide an overarching explanatory framework of learning in the collaborative setting. These concepts include goal-directed activity, human relations, mediation, history, and culture. Consideration for emergent directions for research on collaboration and language learning are presented.
Cognition and Instruction, 2015
Successful collaborative learning is often conceptualized in terms of convergence, a process through which participants' shared understanding increases. This conceptualization does not capture certain successful collaborative learning processes, especially in the humanities, where multiple perspectives are often celebrated. Such is the context of the current study, where 52 Israeli Jewish and 52 Israeli Arab high-school students collaboratively e-investigated a historical event related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Utilizing a bi-dimensional qualitative analysis, we identified four discussion types, including fission, a non-convergent and disputatious process leading to successful collaborative learning outcomes Bakhtin's notion of Internally Persuasive Discourse highlights the quality of collaboration as manifested in the dialogic agency developed by discussants, regardless of whether or not their knowledge converged. It captures the essence of fission-like processes as well as convergence processes, and is hence useful in explaining a wider variety of learning situations, especially in multicultural and/or disputatious contexts. Educating future generations is a challenging task, perhaps more so nowadays than ever in the past. As a result of the accelerating processes of globalization and digitalism, people face the challenge of not only adapting to their current local culture, but also contending with cultural and historical differences within a multicultural framework. Information communication technology (ICT) fuses the "far" or "global" with the "local," leading to frequent encounters with different, even conflicting Others, individuals and groups with narratives, values and viewpoints that may differ from those common locally. On the one hand, encounters with different Others can potentially broaden people's horizons and enrich their experiences; on the other hand, these encounters might increase threats to local cultures, pose conflicts, or cause people to become entrenched in the local and the familiar (Hermans & Dimaggio, 2007). In order to prepare students to successfully function in tomorrow's world, schools should facilitate them in exploiting the learning potential of these encounters. Indeed, the need for
Evolving collaboration among teacher traineesanalysis of collaborative discourse
WoPaLP (3), 2009
The main focus of the study was to investigate group-mechanisms and collaborative small-group learning. Participants (n=20) were pre-service English teacher trainees of a methodology seminar. Group mechanisms and collaborative activities were analysed and made visible with the help of online discussions that evolved in the discussion forums of the course management system (CMS) Moodle. Quantitative data on student participation, online activity and frequency of messages were gained from the log files of the CMS. Through the qualitative content analysis of forum discussions, nine stages of collaborative discourse were identified in the presented pedagogical scenario. Methods for integrating the identified stages in the design process of blended learning in teacher training courses are suggested and best practices for similar courses are offered. However, due to the limited number of participants, further investigation of the relevance of the identified stages on a larger set of sample is needed.
The Role of Communication in Building the Pedagogical Relationship
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2014
The pedagogical relationship -the relationship between teacher/ formator, on the one hand, and student, on the other hand -is built through communication, that is through the transfer of information/ knowledge and cultural content. The relationship between teacher and student is one of social distance generated especially by the cultural differences existing between the protagonists. The efficiency of communication, on which the success of the pedagogical relationship relies, is conditioned by the reconstruction of a common culture to both protagonists. Therefore, we aim to highlight communication strategies that help both the teacher and the student build a common cultural background during their oral communication. In this respect, we shall present and analyse the language strategies used by the teacher/ formator as a sender in order to weigh their contribution to the creation of a common cultural background. The language strategies as generators of the common cultural background are essential but they have to be supported by other complementary activities that have the same purpose.
Socially Constructed Knowledge: An Inquiry into Sharing Activity among Teachers
2013
School has always been associated with knowledge. Knowledge evolves in and within teachersstudents periphery. Teachers in particular, are the master of their work, similarly have additional knowledge about other fields. However, teachers may keep this knowledge to themselves, even though it could be crucial to other teachers and schools. Why teachers become poor knowledge sharer. Do teachers hold on to a restricted view of how knowledge should be shared. Hence, this study is investigating the practice of knowledge sharing activity among the secondary school’s teachers at the work place. Three research questions were proposed in this study, a) Do teachers share their knowledge? b) How do they share their knowledge and c) What are the reasons for knowledge sharing. It explains and discusses the issues that intertwine with other aspects in sharing activity. A purposive sampling technique was used to select a total of 20 teachers as informants for the interview. The results demonstrate ...
Signs and Problems of Togetherness in a Community of Learners
1999
The social and collective aspect in human activities has become one of the main issues in Vygotskian analyses of learning and development. The study assumed that this aspect presupposes some feeling of belonging together and having a shared commitment on the part of the participants. Asserting that relatively little attention has been given to this "togetherness" in research on learning activities in general or on communities of learners, the study addressed the phenomenon of togetherness among a group of 6-year-old students and their teacher in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) who were involved in .a collaborative text-construction task. The issue was studied mainly from a participant perspective. After a theoretical analysis of the notions of togetherness and conflict, analysis was done of a videotaped episode of collaborative work, using Hicks' (1996) multi-layered model of activity analysis. Findings showed that in this learners' community, a variety of strategies were used by the participants to maintain the togetherness in their shared activity. The paper concluded that "togetherness" is a real and meaningful aspect of collective activities; the study of which may deepen insight into the dynamics of a community of learners and its activities. (Contains 79 references.) (EV) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Dialogic construction of collaborative cultures in school
For helping school teachers to manage at-risk students, one promising method is the institution of a "support team" (Ishikuma,1999; Doherty, 2007).To make team's function more effective, the promotion of a professional culture of collaboration is required (Creese, Norwich, and Daniels, 2000; Quinn & Weick, 1991). How should I do to make collaborative culture in school?. In this paper I described the implementation process of "support teams" in two junior high schools. Each school had a lot of student who have behavioral problems. Recently, many research in Activity-theory, Situated-learning treat the issue of collaboration (Engestrom, 2008; Edwards,et.al.2005; Deguid & Brown ,1991; Tuomi-Gron & Engestrom, 2003;.
The discursive practice of participation in an elementary classroom community
Instructional Science, 2005
This study examines the discursive practice of participation in an elementary classroom community aiming towards collective meaning making and joint creation of knowledge. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is shaped by the sociocultural and sociolinguistic approaches. Through examining the communicative practices and discursive roles of the students and the teacher, the study highlights the participation rights and responsibilities of classroom members and demonstrates how these shape the location and nature of knowledge constructed during a lesson. The empirical data for this study emerge from a Finnish third grade class consisting of seventeen students. Detailed, multi-level analyses were carried out on transcribed videorecordings of classroom interactions located within the contexts of Collective problemsolving in mathematics, Group investigation in science and Open-ended dialogue in philosophy. The results show that the cultural rules for communicative participation in this classroom provided the students with a space to take authority in cognitive work, whereas the teacher's responsibility was more directed to the management of interactional practices. The nature of knowledge negotiated during the lessons was by and large based upon view sharing and defining, as well as asking for and providing evidence, instead of mere information exchange. The study also shows that the communicative roles and responsibilities of the classroom members differed across the learning situations. Intentions of collective meaning-making did not always result in multilateral interactions that would invite all classroom members into active participation. Moreover, challenges were identified in the integration and application of the participants' personal histories and experiences as resources for joint meaning-making. In all, the study shows how the discursive norms of the classroom can be aligned with supporting active participation and collective creation of knowledge, but can also be counterproductive in these domains.