Collaborative learning processes associated with high and low conceptual progress

Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) is a database system in which learners collaboratively construct the knowledge represented in the database. This study examined how students in a grade 5-6 classroom built their classroom database on a science topic, 'electricity,' and differences in activities between high- and low-conceptual-progress students. This categorization of students was based on the amount of progress in understanding exhibited over the course of work on the electricity unit, and was not significantly related to standardized achievement test performance. As an analytic tool, Activity Theory, as explicated by Leontiev (1981) was used to describe students' activities mediated by the computer system. Two different levels of student activities were examined: (1) cognitive actions, in which students intentionally pursued cognitive goals; and (2) computer operations, used to attain these goals. In addition, two different psychological planes of collaborative work were considered: the solo pane, in which students mainly focus on their own inquiries, and the joint plane, in which they focus on improvement of the classroom knowledge as a whole. Comparisons of activities between high- and low-conceptual-progress students showed: (1) that high-conceptual-progress students were more concerned with constructing their knowledge centered around problems, whereas low-conceptual-progress students were more involved in accumulating referent-based knowledge; (2) that high-conceptual-progress students were significantly more likely to construct their knowledge by involving in interactive information flow between problem-based and referent-based knowledge; and (3) that high-conceptual-progress students more frequently used the graphics medium in the database to represent problem-based knowledge.