Multiple lenses to peer collaboration: Explorations on children’s thinking within a situative perspective

Abstract

AbstractThis paper describes a study on peer collaboration with students from Kindergarten and Grade 4. Peer collaboration was defined as a co-ordinated activity during which participants collectively process and solve problems towards a joint outcome. Small groups of students were videotaped whilst working jointly on the same task in order to negotiate shared meanings that challenged the subjective understandings of the participants, and sometimes went beyond what they already knew individually. The main questions addressed were: how to approach and understand peer collaboration as situated practice?, and what are the strengths and challenges for investigating peer collaboration via three inter-related analysis methods? The empirical data for the paper was derived from three linked case studies conducted in a Dutch pre-school context, in Finnish kindergarten/pre-school context and in a Finnish elementary school. Case Study 1 and 2 contained peer collaboration during building a joint Lego construction pictured on a plastic card. Case 3 was conducted in an elementary school context and its data draws on one student pair around 12 years old. The data were analysed from three perspectives: sociocultural, relational and developmental. The findings are presented both in quantitative and qualitative ways. The approach presented is discussed as content and method triangulation.