Differences among students can yield rich benefits as well as pose difficult problems during collaborative learning. Students can draw on diverse individual experiences to exchange information, to understand different expressions of shared commonalities, and to construct new possibilities jointly. However, they also face the potential pitfalls of entrenching themselves in opposition to different views, dismissing other perspectives as less important or valid, and misinterpreting others. To examine how individual actions create these benefits and problems, a three-dimensional space is defined, created from the dimensions of evaluation of the previous action (supportive, critical, or unresponsive), problem knowledge content (contribution, repetition, and null), and interactive form (command, question, and statement). Analysis of particular patterns of individual actions indicates how they create beneficial or harmful interactions. Three examples of conversations taking place during collaborative problem solving in an algebra class show how particular individual actions can facilitate or hinder students' collaborative learning. Educators can use a framework developed through this analysis as a collaboration and assessment tool to help students benefit from their individual experiences. (Contains one table, four figures, and eight references.) (Author/SLD)