Facilitating practitioner research into strategies for improving communication in classroom groups: Action research and interaction analysis — A reconciliation?

Sadler, Jo; Fawns, Rod

doi:10.1007/bf02357067

Cited by 3 publications

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“…The test used was the 'Survival' problem (Sadler, 1993;Sadler & Fawns, 1993). It invites students to design an experiment to compare the heat insulating properties of blanketing material and plastic bubble wrap.…”

Section: Instrumentation Test Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cohen (1986) concluded that these findings indicated that "the operation of status can impair the learning of low status students in the group work setting" (p. 31). This theoretical effect has also been noted by Johnson and Johnson (1991) as one reason why cooperative learning can fail.Bianchini (1997) recognised that group work needs to be refined as an instructional method through further research into appropriate curriculum materials, effective instructional methods, and teacher training in the management of group work.Experimental research studies on the management of verbal communication in small groups (Yager, Johnson, & Johnson, 1985;Ross & Raphael 1990;Sadler, 1993;Sadler & Fawns, 1993;Cohen 1994;Gomes, 1994;Smeh, 1996) have sought to explain the success of cooperative learning strategies in terms of patterns of verbal communication in small groups. Yager et al (1985) compared the effects of cooperative learning, on second grade students working on a map unit, in which oral discussion was structured, cooperative learning in which oral discussion was unstructured, and, individualistic learning on daily achievement, postinstructional achievement and retention.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Groups in which requests and demands were more frequently direct and specific tended to outperform other groups. Conversely, groups in which requests and demands were indirect and nonspecific tended to underperform other groups.Using the same basic research design, Sadler (1993), Sadler and Fawns (1993) and Gomes (1994) and Smeh (1996), working with at least three teachers in collaborating science departments in secondary schools, compared the effect of two role management strategies and a control strategy on small group communication and achievement on a problem solving exercise in three concurrent Year 8 science classes within each of a number of schools.One of the role management strategies was a low role structure strategy in which there was only one specific role assignment. It was the role of the reporter.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The other two classes experienced both of the role management strategies. Sadler (1993), Sadler and Fawns (1993) and Gomes (1994) found that managed cooperative group work was more effective than the control strategy. …”

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confidence: 99%

“…Sadler (1993), Sadler and Fawns (1993) and Gomes (1994) found that managed cooperative group work was more effective than the control strategy. Yager et al (1985), Ross and Raphael (1990), Sadler (1993), Sadler and Fawns (1993) and Gomes (1994) did not investigate gender as a variable in their studies but recognised that gender may function as a status characteristic in science classes. Sadler (1993) noted marked gender differences in the planning and working methods used by groups.…”

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Classroom management of situated group learning: A research study of two teaching strategies

Smeh

Fawns

2000

Research in Science Education

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Ab~ractAlthough peer-based work is encouraged by theories in developmental psychology and although classroom interventions suggest it is effective, there are grounds for recognising that young pupils find collaborative learning hard to sustain. Discontinuities in collaborative skill during development have been suggested as one interpretation. Theory and research have neglected situational continuities that the teacher may provide in management of formal and informal collaborations. This experimental study, with the collaboration of the science faculty in one urban secondary college, investigated the effect of two role attribution strategies on communication in peer groups of different gender composition in three parallel Year 8 science classes. The groups were set a problem that required them to design an experiment to compare the thermal insulating properties of two different materials. This presents the data collected and key findings, and reviews the findings from previous parallel studies that have employed the same research design in different school settings. The results confirm the effectiveness of social role attribution strategies in teacher management of communication in peer-based work.In science education, a decade of clinical interview based research pioneered by Osborne and Freyberg (1985) into "children's science," has led to theoretical advances in understanding the nature of students' constructed conceptual understanding. The broad tenets of constructivism as a model have attracted considerable support amongst advocates of progressive classroom reform (Ritchie, 1998). However, the process of coming to know in the social setting of the classroom has not been so well researched. If the constructivist model of learning is to be elaborated and usefully modelled for classroom teachers then further empirical data is required. Learning theories that fall within the constructivist school require methodologically that teachers provide for the negotiation of social context and academic context to enable meaning making. From the late sixties science curriculum materials such as the Australian Science Education Project (1974), influenced by Piagetian theory, advocated peer-group settings for science learning. Piaget (1928, p. 204) argued that through "the shock of their thought coming into contact with that of others" children greatly benefit from having to coordinate their thinking with that of their peers. Many sociocultural theorists after Vygotsky (1978) view learning as inherently social because it involves appropriating modes of social discourse; that is gaining access to representational systems that permit distinctive ways of organising and communicating human experience. So educational practice, it is argued, must offer opportunities to explore such discursive systems through interacting with similarly motivated peers: in fact to collaborate. The perception that active individual learning in science classes occurs in a social and cultural context underpins the situative perspective that takes the ...

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Section: Instrumentation Test Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%