Exploring social and cognitive engagement in small groups through a community of learners (CoL) lens

Abstract

A variety of research studies reveal the advantages of actively engaging students in the learning process through collaborative work in the classroom. However, the complex nature of the learning environment...

Thinking and Learning in Nested Systems: The Classroom Level

“…We need to acknowledge the extent to which we are complicit in sustaining exclusionary systems and structures and be willing to reimagine the role of our discipline in the preparation of chemistry and STEM professionals. Our research suggests that, even in learning environments where instructors implement evidence-based teaching practices, , students’ cognitive engagement with chemical ideas is rather shallow. In most of these classrooms, students are still exposed to multiple concepts and ideas in a short time, work on multiple semidisconnected tasks in a class period, receive little preparation to work collaboratively, are asked to focus their attention on topics of little personal or professional relevance, and are evaluated using assessments that target fragmented pieces of knowledge.…”

“…Controlling the multiple variables that affect students’ behavioral, social, emotional, and cognitive engagements can be quite challenging even for the most experienced instructors, particularly when working with large numbers of diverse students. Our observations of group work in college general chemistry courses taught in different classrooms across various institutions, , together with the results from prior related research, reveal a complex classroom ecology in which group work is highly variable from one group to another working on the same task, from task to task in any given group, and from classroom to classroom in different settings and institutions. In the following sections, we use the results of these studies to illustrate the complexity in social and knowledge dynamics in collaborative groups in interactive learning environments.…”

“…In our observations of group work in different classrooms, behavioral engagement was relatively high in most environments except for the class taught in a conventional lecture hall. Analysis of the social dynamics in behaviorally engaged groups revealed that most students contributed chemical knowledge and ideas to group conversations and that these contributions were generally acknowledged by peers and built upon to generate shared meanings . However, group size and the nature of in-class tasks affected the social dynamics.…”

“…Again, we illustrate these complex interactions using results from our recent investigations in different learning environments and related work. In these studies, knowledge sharing was the most common dynamic observed in all classes across different learning environments. , Nevertheless, knowledge dynamics in groups were affected by the physical setting, the type of curriculum, and the nature of in-class tasks. Instances of knowledge construction were more prevalent in the course taught in a CLS using a nontraditional curriculum, while episodes of knowledge application were more common in classes dedicated to problem-solving (e.g., recitation sessions).…”

Engaging with engagement in learning chemistry: a guiding note about a multidimensional construct

“…In recent years, we have seen an increase in the number of chemistry education research articles that have combined different sources of measurements to explore the multiple dimensions of engagement in relation to learning activities (tasks, actions and experiences) or resources. In this current issue of Chemistry Education Research and Practice, readers can find one such example of a study where the authors define four dimensions of engagement, including social engagement, that they consider important in small-group active learning (Nennig et al, 2023). Their methods of measurement include data collection that captures student interaction discourse moves and studentexpressed chemical thinking.…”