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12 - Analyzing Collaborative Discourse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
R. Keith Sawyer
Edited by
R. Keith Sawyer
R. Keith Sawyer
Affiliation:
Washington University
R. Keith Sawyer
Affiliation:
Washington University, St Louis
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Summary

In traditional instruction, the teacher provides information to students, either through lectures or assigned readings. This information typically consists of single-sentence statements of fact, and step-by-step procedures for solving specific kinds of problems. Students are expected to memorize the information and then demonstrate that they've memorized it by doing well on a test – either by restating the facts correctly, or by applying the memorized procedure to solve a problem. This is known as a transmission and acquisition style of teaching and learning. In contrast, learning sciences research emphasizes a new style of learning – one in which the teacher works with students in a community of learners, providing appropriate scaffolds to student project groups as they build knowledge together. In a classroom based on the scientific principles emerging from the learning sciences, students often talk to each other as they construct knowledge together. The teacher is always present but is not dominating the discussion; the teacher often facilitates or channels the discussion, but if students are working together effectively an experienced teacher may realize that the best thing to do is to stay silent.

In emphasizing peer collaboration, the learning sciences is drawing on over twenty years of educational research that has consistently demonstrated that collaboration helps students learn (e.g., Bossert, 1988–1989; Johnson & Johnson, 1992; Kumpulainen & Mutanen, 2000; Slavin, 1990, 1992; Webb & Palincsar, 1996).

Type
Chapter
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The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences , pp. 187 - 204
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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