Group Cognition as a Foundation for the New Science of Learning

Abstract

In the new global world, it is time to recognize that knowledge is primarily produced socially and progressively, not just by spontaneous acts of isolated minds. Individuals participate in this as knowledge learners, knowledge users and knowledge builders, predominantly through their interactions in small groups. The cognitive work of small groups can be distinct from individual thinking and community knowledge processing. We need a new science of group learning to complement our sciences of individual learning and community knowledge building. In particular, we need a science that will help us to realize the potential of computer networking to foster the formation of virtual groups and computersupported collaborative learning. The construct of group cognition provides a theoretical and practical foundation for developing the needed science, for analyzing the work of small groups and for designing effective collaboration software. The Virtual Math Teams Project provides a model of such scientific research. Along with related explorations of group processes, it has already started to produce concrete analyses of group cognition and to develop a multi-faceted online educational environment. A science of group cognition can systematically provide findings that are objective, reliable and generalizable through its interpretive case studies. With its focus on the group as the unit of description, group cognition joins other post-cognitive theories, which extend the analysis of cognition beyond the psychological individual. As the pivotal middle ground in which knowledge is primordially co-constructed, the group provides a foundation for sciences of learning at the individual, small group and community levels.

What Do We Teach When We Teach the Learning Sciences? A Document Analysis of 75 Graduate Programs

“…This includes how children and adults process, gather, and interpret information or actions and how they develop knowledge, skills, and expertise, as well as other dispositions in different contexts such as schools, museums, or workplaces. Approaches to address these questions have been heavily influenced by theories of situated learning and cognition as well as sociocultural approaches (e.g., Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1988;Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2014;Stahl, 2010). These theories emphasize the importance of the social and physical context of cognition and hence the proclivity for authentic learning tasks (Greeno & Engeström, 2014).…”

Learning, Tablet, Culture—Coherence?

“…The unit to analyse was the children's utterances [27] in the form of sentences or short expressions based on the learners' own pictures. Data analysis was qualitative.…”

“…The theory of group cognition [26,27] inspired the design of this research and it has also guided the understanding of learning in the 1:1 tablet project from several aspects. The interview data are seen as collaborative knowledge of what learning is, preceded by a collaborative discourse on that subject.…”

“…Utterances in this paper are the learners' statements about learning in the form of full sentences, short statements or sometimes just a summarising word. These utterances make group cognitions and collaborative knowledge visible [26][27][28]. In this research the focus group interviews is one example when the small group, formed by three individuals, present collaborative knowledge.…”

“…the Russian term of Obuchenie [29], they are seen as part of the same Learning expedition of exploring learning situations [30,31]. The classroom, together with the municipality leadership, forms a culture [27] and since the research focus is on learning in a context where Internet-enabled technology can be taken for granted via tablets; it is named a tablet learning culture.…”