Social and Communicative Factors in Learning Thrust

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Social and Communicative Factors in Learning
Thrust

• Lauren Resnick, University of Pittsburgh
• Carolyn Penstein Rosé, Carnegie Mellon University

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Connection with Interactive Communication Cluster

• Expansion from dyads and tutors to group
  discussions of specific content, often
  teacher-facilitated
• From one S pair observing one stable T-S pair, to
• Multiple student observers, shifting T-S pairs
• Ss may also interact with each other, in dyads or
  small groups
• Collaborative learning skills modeled and
  scaffolded
• Human interaction is fundamentally social and
  language-based How does it work in learning?
• Cognition shares and highlights important KCs
• Metacognition embodies strategies of
  argumentation, including evaluation, regulation,
  etc.
• Motivation supports participation, ownership,
  identification and sense of ones ideas as
  valuable
• Learning to learn how to conduct
  learning-oriented conversations

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Creating a Culture of Learning

• Most Ss need to be taught how to participate
  effectively in instructional conversations
• Teacher-led, content-specific discussions can
  model appropriate participation strategies
• We hypothesize that Ss will appropriate these
  strategies and use them when T is not leading
• Network as well as individual effects a form of
  spreading activation
• Culture of learning, students as agents of change

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Important Outcomes

• Conceptual depth near and far transfer
• Ability to clearly articulate and substantiate
  ideas
• Learning-to-learn skills
• Desire for future learning
• Identification with learning community, agency,
  staying in school and attendance

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Cross-Cutting Center Theme Assistance Dilemma

• Distributed assistance (Ss Ts)
• Multiple tellers
• Ts assistance to one S affects others learning
  and groups capacity to offer assistance
• Assistance coming from more than one source

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Vision

• Support for collaborative learning is like
  training wheels
• Effective support allows learners to achieve
  better collaboration
• Unnecessary support can be demotivating
• Fading support is ideal
• But too little support can be detrimental as well
• Trained human facilitators are able to achieve
  the right balance

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Vision

• Support for collaborative learning is like
  training wheels
• Effective support allows learners to achieve
  better collaboration
• Unnecessary support can be demotivating
• Fading support is ideal
• But too little support can be detrimental as well
• Trained human facilitators are able to achieve
  the right balance

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Vision

• Support for collaborative learning is like
  training wheels
• Effective support allows learners to achieve
  better collaboration
• Unnecessary support can be demotivating
• Fading support is ideal
• But too little support can be detrimental as well
• Trained human facilitators are able to achieve
  the right balance

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Vision

• Support for collaborative learning is like
  training wheels
• Effective support allows learners to achieve
  better collaboration
• Unnecessary support can be demotivating
• Fading support is ideal
• But too little support can be detrimental as well
• Trained human facilitators are able to achieve
  the right balance

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Vision

• Support for collaborative learning is like
  training wheels
• Effective support allows learners to achieve
  better collaboration
• Unnecessary support can be demotivating
• Fading support is ideal
• But too little support can be detrimental as well
• Trained human facilitators are able to achieve
  the right balance

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Vision

• Support for collaborative learning is like
  training wheels
• Effective support allows learners to achieve
  better collaboration
• Unnecessary support can be demotivating
• Fading support is ideal
• But too little support can be detrimental as well
• Trained human facilitators are able to achieve
  the right balance

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Vision

• Support for collaborative learning is like
  training wheels
• Effective support allows learners to achieve
  better collaboration
• Unnecessary support can be demotivating
• Fading support is ideal
• But too little support can be detrimental as well
• Trained human facilitators are able to achieve
  the right balance

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Accountable Talk

• A codified set of moves that Ts and Ss can be
  taught that build effective language in the
  classroom

• Press individuals to explain and elaborate
• Require individuals to listen and respond to each
  other
• Reveal misunderstandings, incomplete ideas
• Let Ss know how others are hearing them
• Spread participation through the group
• Validate Ss right and ability to participate

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Transactivity

• Students explicitly display their reasoning
• Students orient their contributions towards
  previous contributions
• May be competitive or non-competitive
• May be representational, extensional, or
  transformational
• May be oriented towards self or other

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Accountable Talk elicits Transactivity in group
discussion

• Eddie Well, i don't think it matters what order
  the numbers are in. You still get the same
  answer. But three times four and four times
  three seem like they could be talking about
  different things.
• Teacher Rebecca, do you agree or disagree with
  what Eddie is saying?
• Rebecca Well, I agree that it doesn't matter
  which number is first, because they both give you
  twelve. But I don't get what Eddie means about
  them saying different things.
• Teacher Eddie, would you explain what you mean?
• Eddie Well, I just think that like three times
  four can mean three groups of four things, like
  three bags of four apples. And four times three
  means four bags of three apples, and those don't
  seem like the same thing.
• Tiffany But you still have the same number of
  apples, so they are the same!
• Teacher OK, so we have two different ideas here
  to talk about. Eddie says the order does matter,
  because the two orders can be used to describe
  different situations. So Tiffany, are you saying
  that three times four and four times three can't
  be used to describe two different situations?

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Learning Results

• Students in accountable talk classrooms learn
  more than students in a traditional classroom
  (Resnick, OConnor Michaels, in Preiss
  Sternberg, eds., Pathbreaking Discoveries in the
  Learning Sciences Empson et al., 2006 Roseberry
  et al., 2005 Boaler, 2003 Lee, 2001 Boaler
  Greeno, 2000)
• Transactivity correlates with learning and
  performance (Kumar et al., 2007 Russell, 2005
  Kruger Tomasello, 1986 Teasley, 1995)
• Consistent with results in connection with
  elaborated explanations (e.g., Webb, Nemer,
  Zuniga, 2002)
• Collaboration support that increases
  transactivity increases learning (Wang et al.,
  2007)

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Primary Goals for the Social-Communicative
Thrust Dual Focus

• In Vivo Studies of Discussion-Based Learning
• (Semi)Automated Analysis of Discussion Data

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In Vivo Studies of Discussion-Based Learning

• Build on PSLC strength in developing effective
  instructional interventions and in vivo studies
• Design reliable/replicable methods for teaching
  AT/Transactivity in math and science learning
• Collaborations with Kim and Louis Gomez in the
  University Prep School
• Test our spreading activation/infection
  hypothesis
• Test the robust learning outcomes complex
  concepts and explanations near and far transfer
  learning-to-learn skills and desire for future
  learning

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(Semi) Automated Recording Analysis

• Develop infrastructure for obtaining clean
  recordings of small group and whole class
  discussions
• Generalize automatic transactivity analysis
  technology to (1) be general across domains, (2)
  apply to whole class discussions rather than very
  small groups, (3) apply to speech recognition
  data
• Collaborate with DataShop to disseminate datasets
  that include annotated speech, in addition to
  other measurement data such as tests and
  questionnaires

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