How to Study Group Cognition

Abstract

Abstract. Understanding how a collaborative group as a whole constructs knowledge through joint activity in a CSCL setting is what sets the research field of CSCL apart from other approaches to the study of learning. Successful collaboration involves not only the incorporation of contributions of individuals into the group discourse, but also the effort to make sure that participating individuals understand what is taking place at the group level. The contributions of individuals to the group and of understandings from the group to the individuals cannot be studied by analyses at the individual unit of analysis, but only be studying the interactions at the group level. The group knowledge construction process synthesizes innumerable resources from language, culture, the group's own history, individual backgrounds, relevant contexts and the sequential unfolding of the group discourse in which the individuals participate. Although the group process is dependent upon contributions and understanding of individuals, their individual cognition is essentially situated in the group process. Group cognition is the science of cognitive processes at the group unit of analysis. These group processes-such as the sequential flow of proposals, questioning, building common ground, maintaining a joint problem space, establishing intersubjective meanings, positioning actors in evolving roles, building knowledge collaboratively and solving problems together-are not analyzable as individual behaviors. This chapter will describe how the Virtual Math Teams project was designed as a prototypical CSCL environment in which the relevant resources and interactions could be recorded for the micro-analytic study of group cognition.

Toward a classification of discourse patterns in asynchronous online discussions

“…The patterns entailed a coarse unit that considered the sequential flow of interactions between notes. This unit of analysis is more suitable for studying group cognition (Stahl 2011) and is more aligned with the theoretical underpinnings of knowledge building. We adapted the analytical methodology using inquiry threads in knowledge building (Zhang et al 2007), including codes, threads, and narrative units, and tested the usability of the discourse patterns by reanalyzed two additional datasets.…”

“…Knowledge building discourse entails not only incorporating multiple online discourse ideas in a synthesis, but also ensuring others can follow what is being discussed (Stahl 2011) for community advance; students went beyond learning textbook content and made constructive use of other information to explain their perspectives on social phenomena (ways of expressing public opinion). The focus on community can be considered an effort to produce knowledge, as the students were pursuing inquiry and developing concepts to explain the phenomena (Bereiter 2002a).…”

“…As the excerpts show, students asked emerging questions, revised earlier understanding (theories), made rise-above ideas synthesizing earlier understanding, and monitored collective understanding through new questions. In knowledge-building discourse, students are focused on community goals: they engage in discourse moves that ensure others can follow what is being discussed (Stahl 2011), and they use meta-discourse to synthesize what has been discussed and link the discourse to higher level goals.…”

“…Moreover, as the segmentation process ignores the semantics of discussion and the signals of collaboration (Çakır et al 2009;Stahl 2002), the situational and contextual information that indicates how and why an utterance is produced is obscured (Kumpulainen and Mutanen 1999;Suthers et al 2010). Therefore, Hmelo-Silver (2003) suggested the use of multiple methods to examine the multifaceted online discourse, and Stahl (2011) proposed using a group as the unit of analysis when attempting to understand how a group as a whole constructs knowledge and engages in intersubjective meaning making.…”

A novel approach to assess collaborative learning processes and group performance through the knowledge convergence

“…Previous studies have, however, investigated the knowledge convergence phenomenon at the individual level (Jeong and Chi 2007). In fact, as Stahl (2011)proposed, group knowledge construction should be studied at the group level as only focusing on the individual cannot be used to systematically study and understand the nature of knowledge convergence.…”