In this paper we examine how two groups of middle school students arrive at shared understandings of and solutions to mathematical problems. Our data consists of logs of student participation in the Virtual Math Teams (VMT) system as they work on math problems. The project supports interaction both through chat and through a virtual whiteboard. We…

With the aim to promote students' mathematics learning, we extended the Cognitive Tutor Algebra (CTA), a computer-based tutoring system for high school mathematics, to a collaborative setting. Furthermore we developed a collaboration script to support students' interactions. In an experimental classroom study, we compared three conditions:…

Our research aims to identify children's communicative strategies when faced with the task of solving a geometric puzzle in CSCL contexts. We investigated how to identify and trace "distributed cognition" in problem-solving interactions based on discursive cohesion to objects, participants, and prior discursive content, and geometric and…

This study was designed as a confirmatory study of work on "productive failure" (Kapur, "Cognition and Instruction," 26(3), 379-424, 2008). N = 177, 11th-grade science students were randomly assigned to solve either well- or ill-structured problems in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment without the provision of any…

This article discusses the relationship between procedural and conceptual problem solving in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment designed within the field of science education. The contribution of this article, and our understanding of this phenomenon, is anchored in our socio-cultural interpretation, and that implies…

While it has been suggested that patterning activities support early algebra learning, it is widely acknowledged that the shift from perceiving patterns to understanding algebraic functions--and correspondingly, from reporting empirical patterns to providing explanations--is difficult. This paper reports on the collaborations of grade 4 students…

This study explores the potential of networked handheld computers to support collaborative problem solving in small groups. Drawing on data from a middle school mathematics classroom equipped with a wireless handheld network, I argue that the sharing of mathematical objects through interactive devices broadens the "bandwidth" of classroom…