Communication in Creative Collaborations: The Challenges of Uncertainty and Desire Related to Task, Identity, and Relational Goals

Managing Uncertainty During Collaborative Problem Solving in Elementary School Teams: The Role of Peer Influence in Robotics Engineering Activity

“…and evaluation (e.g., If true, what are the implications of the assertion for my well-being?). Probabilistic and evaluative uncertainties related to instrumental and relational meanings are constantly being negotiated by speakers and hearers (Babrow, 2001;Jordan & Babrow, 2013;Lazarus, 1991). Thus, the experience of uncertainty likely plays an important role in content learning and in interaction during collaborative learning tasks .…”

Investigating Middle School Students’ Perceptions of Communication Challenges in Collaborative Engineering Design Learning (Fundamentals)

“…Drawing from previous research on peer-to-peer interactions during collaborative work (See, for example, 8,9,21,22,23 ), we identified two social issues (negotiating roles and responsibilities, evaluating progress) and two task issues (understanding the task specifications, generating design ideas) that present communication challenges for individuals engaged in collaborative design activity: negotiating roles and responsibilities; evaluating task progress and group interaction; understanding the task; and generating new ideas or solutions. These communication challenges became the basis for reflective survey questions, observers' notes, and class debriefings.…”

“…Our interest grew out of previous findings indicating that students encounter communication challenges related to task, relational, and identity issues when collaborating on engineering design projects. 8,9 Even professional designers struggle with these complex issues, frequently encountering misunderstandings, avoidance of conflict, and persuasion to achieve adoption of ideas and actions . 10 Negotiating these social processes is particularly difficult for young adolescents who are still developing the metacognitive capacities required for such negotiation 11 and confronting new relational concerns.…”

“…[12][13] Intractable ambiguity associated with creative endeavors, partial knowledge students have about new content, and negotiation of social roles, responsibilities and positions all present communication challenges as students engage in design projects 8 . Moreover, complications abound because the various contingencies are interdependent (e.g., knowledge of content constrains solution options).…”

Understanding Youth Collaboration: How Learners Experience the Design Process in a Collaborative Context (Fundamentals)

“…14,15 Other research has identified effective scaffolding to support middle school leaners' communication during collaborative design activities 16,17 as well as between-group influences on design activity. 18,19 However, systematic studies of young adolescents' peer interaction among team members during collaborative design activity are rare, and little is yet understood about how learners' perceive of their collaborative interactions.…”