Presentation
Do Students Learn in Collaborative Consultation? A Speech Act Theory Perspective of Dynamic Frequently Asked Questions
Dick Ng'ambi, Multimedia Education Group, University of Cape Town
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| Paper (9 pages) |
While collaborative learning (CL) increases learning opportunities among participating members of a group, it is a non-trivial task for a teacher to know what kind of learning occurs. Proponents of CL claim that active exchange of ideas within small groups increases interest, promotes critical thinking, learning takes place. etc. However, there has been little empirical evidence to support the claims made.
My argument is that most case studies in favour of CL have based their observations on post-task reflective interviews of participants or experimental group results of a quasi-experimental design. The problem with these methodologies is that they tend to study perspectives on experience. My view is that the underpinning epistemology of CL is the view that knowledge is socially constructed and therefore knowledge needs to be captured during construction. However, the use of CL in a classroom is often hindered by a dominant metaphor of teaching in which learners are regarded as information seekers and teachers as information givers. This has created mindsets among students of expecting to receive information as opposed to giving information.
I argue that learning is a mental activity expressed through language and impossible to study without a dual process of seeking and giving information. We can therefore learn from messages exchanged among individuals while they collaborate on a task. I discuss a special purpose knowledge sharing space called a Dynamic Frequently Asked Questions (DFAQ) used by students for collaborative consultation. The DFAQ tracked the social construction of knowledge; the artefacts became knowledge resource to the class; and used as input into diagnosing learning using Speech Act Theory. The illocutionary acts of Speech Act Theory may thus provide a framework of analysing online consultative interactions and contribute to understanding CL from artefacts of socially constructed knowledge.