Designing Collaborative Learning Activity for the Abstract Knowledge Creation

Abstract

This study demonstrates t hat collaborative learning for the abstract knowledge creation involves three conditions: (1) the sharing of various representations , (2) the discussion of solutions, and (3) the absence of teacher interventions. We found that when these conditions are emb edded in the design of a lesson, students are able to gain knowledge, even if they do not find solutions. Our research design involved two classes of sixth- grade students. In mathematics lessons, a teacher asked students to come up with the number of games of a round -robin football tournament. One classroom used a J igsaw method and the other did not. One or five months later, students were required to write what they remembered of specific lessons on a retrospective test. S tudents in the non- Jigsaw classroo m included those who retained knowledge and those who did not. However, students in the J igsaw classroom recalled what they had learned, except for a certain group. Through a dialogue analysis of each group with KBDeX, we found that certain types of discou rse were promoted by lesson designs. In the first type, students shared various representation s (e.g., concrete scenes, symbols , computations , diagrams or tables) and discussed solutions . In the second type, they pooled single representation and only discussed answers. In the third type, students shared various representation s but only discussed answers. In the J igsaw classrooms, in which most of the first type of group was located, students with different ideas discussed solutions. In contrast, in the non-Jigsaw classrooms, with the first and second types of groups, those with differing ideas did not discuss solutions. In addition, we found that the third type of group did not consider solutions with a teacher’s intervention. In order to enhance activities of sharing representations, now we are designing the activities that students use tablet devices.