Abstract
This paper reports on student peer collaboration in an online environment in an international shared curriculum, the Global Climate Exchange. Four cohorts of students (age 16 -19) from Canada, China, Norway and Sweden (n=157) were engaged in four wiki-based activities where they collaborated with peers locally and internationally. Previously, impact from Global Climate Exchange on students’ conceptual understanding was analysed, indicating a positive impact which might be explained by the amount of interactions with peers and international peer collaboration. This paper looks further into the details of the students’ peer interactions in terms of how they communicate in the online Global Climate Exchange learning environment. The study revealed that communication between international peers might be more constructive than when communication is limited to national peers. This might be a possible explanation for our previously findings indicating that international peer collaboration may well be an approach to enhance students’ conceptual understanding of climate change.
Highlights
Climate change is a complex scientific topic that many people find difficult to understand (Daniel, Stanisstreet, & Boyes, 2004; Dove, 1996; Gowda, Fox, & Magelky, 1997; Papadimitriou, 2004; Rye, Rubba, & Wiesenmayer, 1997)
This paper focuses on exploring and comparing national and international peer collaboration and focus is on the online activities in Global Climate Exchange
We found that international peer collaboration within the online Global Climate Exchange might be the reason students’ enhance their conceptual understanding of climate change (Korsager & Slotta, 2012)
Summary
Climate change is a complex scientific topic that many people find difficult to understand (Daniel, Stanisstreet, & Boyes, 2004; Dove, 1996; Gowda, Fox, & Magelky, 1997; Papadimitriou, 2004; Rye, Rubba, & Wiesenmayer, 1997). Recognizing the importance of educating people to understand climate change and being aware of the challenges of teaching and understanding the topic, we have developed a new science curriculum called Global Climate Exchange. This paper focuses on exploring and comparing national and international peer collaboration and focus is on the online activities in Global Climate Exchange. We found that international peer collaboration within the online Global Climate Exchange might be the reason students’ enhance their conceptual understanding of climate change (Korsager & Slotta, 2012). Our results are consistent with prior research in science education, where inquiry-oriented activities involving peer collaboration have been shown to promote autonomous (self-directed) and reflective learners (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2003, 2006; Slotta & Jorde, 2010) as well as to develop students’ understanding (Gerard, Tate, Chiu, Corliss, & Linn, 2009; Howe, Tolmie, Greer, & Mackenzie, 1995; Mork & Jorde, 2004). The research questions explored are: 1) How do students communicate when they collaborate with peers in “Global Climate Exchange”, and 2) What are, if any the diffferences in communication between national and international peers?
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