Collaborative Problem-solving Activities Research Articles

Identifying emergent roles and their relationship with learning outcomes and collaborative problem-solving skills

Collaborative problem-solving (CPS) has become essential in today's society because it provides opportunities for deep learning and critical thinking. During CPS, students tend to spontaneously adopt different roles that facilitate the interactive process. Previous studies have focused on the influence of emergent roles on learning outcomes and CPS skills, but have rarely used procedural approaches to analyze the diversity of and changes in emergent roles during CPS. The availability of naturally occurring educational discourse data provides the opportunity to identify emergent roles at a fine-grained level. Therefore, this study identified emergent roles based on fine-grained coding and used hierarchical regression and epistemic network analysis to explore the influence of emergent roles on learning outcomes through CPS activities and their co-occurrence with CPS skills. The identification of emergent roles was based on observations of 54 undergraduates and postgraduates. The results showed that the participants played different, flexible roles during the CPS process. Roles focused on content and performance appeared more frequently, while those related to social emotion and evaluation were relatively less frequent. Furthermore, knowledge seeker and distractor significantly impeded the success of CPS activities, and harmonizer was conducive to high-quality learning outcomes. In addition, information giver always co-occurred with the skills of maintaining team function. Content- and performance-focused roles usually appeared together with negotiation and coordination. These findings highlight the importance of emergent roles during the CPS process, and provide some practical suggestions for improving learning outcomes and CPS skills.

Sherlock Holmes and the Neurophysiologists: Unraveling the "Mystery" of Active Learning Success.

The Sherlock Holmes (SH) Project is a collaborative problem-solving activity in the form of a murder mystery that is a great resource for upper-level undergraduate courses in neurophysiology that emphasize synaptic transmission and neuromuscular communication. This project, originally described by Adler and Schwartz (2006), has become a central focus of the Neurophysiology course at Allegheny College, along with many complementary activities that work to reinforce the neuroscience material and skills such as creative experimental design and analysis. Active Learning research in advanced levels of undergraduate courses is rare in the pedagogy literature, and this paper adds to that body of research. Formal assessment of the course generally and the SH Project specifically support the hypothesis that the active learning pedagogical strategies employed foster a positive and successful learning environment.

Accuracy and effectiveness of an orchestration tool on instructors’ interventions and groups’ collaboration

This paper presents the development of a novel orchestration tool that predicts collaborative problem-solving (CPS) behaviors of undergraduate engineering groups and investigates the use of that tool by instructors. We explore the impact of receiving real-time, machine-learning, model-based prompts on 1) instructors’ orchestration strategies, which are strategies instructors use to manage and facilitate collaborative activities, and 2) groups’ participation, including how groups are engaged in CPS activities. The orchestration tool is a dashboard that notifies instructors of—and advises them on—monitoring and intervening with groups who may need collaborative support and guidance. We describe the accuracy of the models in predicting CPS behaviors and of instructors in identifying these behaviors in the classroom. We then describe how real-time prompts from models can affect instructors’ orchestration strategies and students’ participation. Our findings show that there is variability in the accuracy of our machine learning models and that instructors are better at identifying predictive behaviors as compared to the models. Instructors in this context engaged in orchestration strategies, like monitoring and probing when using the orchestration tool, and groups of students were largely talking while on-task across classes. We triangulate across data sources to examine the effectiveness of the orchestration tool in the classroom and share pedagogical and technical implications for the field.

Collaborative Critical Thinking Problem Sets Enhance Student Perceived Learning and Promote Student Practice Outside of the Classroom

Collaborative learning and peer-to-peer teaching activities can greatly enhance student learning and engagement in the classroom. This work evaluates the implementation of an additional required class period dedicated to collaborative problem solving activities. A two-semester integrative upper-level anatomy and physiology course (Human Anatomy and Physiology 1 and 2) was revised for the 2022-2023 academic year from a 2 x 75-minute weekly schedule to a 3 x 75-minute weekly schedule to facilitate an extra class period each Friday dedicated to graded collaborative critical thinking worksheets called Problem Sets. Two Friday Problem Set sessions were scheduled for each unit, resulting in an additional 150 minutes of faculty-student contact time per unit and 8 Problem Sets per semester, totalling 16 Problem Sets for the year-long course. Students were encouraged to work in groups on these questions which integrated the previous two class period’s content and additional previous course content, as applicable. Questions in each Problem Set targeted concepts at the Apply, Analyze, or Evaluate learning levels of the Modified Bloom's Taxonomy. Each student turned in their own answer page for an individual grade, serving as a formative assessment. The Problem Set worksheets also included three reflective questions asking the student to note which classmates they worked with, how well they felt they understood the material, and what they did outside of class to prepare for the Problem Set session. The cohort of students in this study was 14 students/semester. In 16/16 Problem Sets, 100% of the students responded to an open-ended question indicating that they completed the Problems Sets with classmates and identified their specific collaborators. In 13/16 Problem Sets, students’ responses to the multiple choice reflective question, “After completing these questions with my classmates I feel…”, 85% of the students responded “...like I understand the material better,” and the remaining 15% responded “...about the same.” In the other 3/16 Problem Sets, only 64% of the students responded “...like I understand the material better.” This indicates that some Problem Sets were more effective than others in assisting students with perceived learning and understanding of the content. Notably, as the semester progressed, students increased their response details to the open-ended question, “How do you prepare for these Friday sessions?”. At the beginning of the semester many students left the question blank or wrote “nothing”, but beginning with Problem Set 4 students started to list specific things they did outside of class to prepare for these sessions, such as “reviewing course notes” or “redrawing pathways and figures” or “completing practice problems in the textbook.” By Problem Set 7 more than 80% of students were sharing details on how they increased their study time outside of class to prepare for Problem Sets. These responses highlight the students’ increased utilization of metacognitive strategies that lead to success (i.e. spending more time outside of class preparing for in class activities) and the benefit of these activities on their learning and understanding of the course material. Collectively, these qualitative data support the continued use of Problem Sets in this integrative year-long anatomy and physiology course. none. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Effective Pedagogical Approaches in English Language Teaching: Insights from a Kazakhstani Educator

This paper delves into the effective pedagogical approaches employed in teaching the English language, as practiced by educators in Kazakhstan. It aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of various teaching methods that emphasize cultural responsiveness, student engagement, and linguistic proficiency. The study employs a qualitative methodology, including in-depth interviews with experienced English language teachers and classroom observations in various educational settings across Kazakhstan. Key findings highlight the importance of integrating local cultural contexts into language instruction, thereby enhancing the relevance and effectiveness of teaching methods. The paper also explores the use of student-centered approaches, such as collaborative learning and problem-solving activities, which have shown to significantly improve student motivation and participation. Furthermore, it discusses the challenges faced by teachers in adapting to diverse student needs and maintaining high standards of language proficiency. The role of continuous professional development in equipping teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge to implement these approaches effectively is also examined. This study contributes to the broader discourse on English language teaching in non-native contexts, offering valuable insights for educators and policymakers in Kazakhstan and similar settings.

Effects of ability grouping on students’ collaborative problem solving patterns: Evidence from lag sequence analysis and epistemic network analysis

Grouping students according to their abilities and maximizing each member's role is a key issue in collaborative learning research. Although some studies have investigated the effects of homogeneous or heterogeneous grouping on collaborative learning performance, the differences between two approaches remains largely unexplored. During the course of an eight-week term, 42 student teachers participated in a multitasking collaborative problem solving activity. This study employed content analysis, Lag Sequence Analysis, and Epistemic Network Analysis to examine the effects of ability grouping on the behavioral patterns and cognitive networks of the student teachers. The coding results show that, compared with the homogenous groups, the heterogeneous groups had more socially oriented communication, and they were also more inclined to propose questions concerning learning task. Students with similar ability were more successful in establishing common representations of problem solving in peer interactions. In addition, the statistical analysis showed that heterogeneous groups had significantly higher learning performance than homogeneous groups. Revealing and comparing the behavioral patterns, heterogeneous groups had more behavioral sequences that were significantly associated with learning performance, which partly explained the significantly higher performance of the heterogeneous group than the homogeneous group. Compared with the homogeneous groups, the most striking difference of the heterogeneous groups was in how they proceeded negotiation. Furthermore, Epistemic Network Analysis detailed how they developed cognitive networks of multitasking collaborative learning from different levels. At the group level, more closely connected CPS skills were observed in the heterogeneous group. At the individual level, three learners in the heterogeneous groups had a distributed discussion focus and trajectory change due to the emerging of student-teacher relationships. In the homogeneous groups, three learners were very close in their discussion focus at beginning and the changes in the trajectories are also very close. Finally, we stated the implications and limitations and pointed out future research directions.

Mapping out the structural relationship of middle school students’ use of talk and gestures and group outcomes’ quality in collaborative science problem-solving activities

ABSTRACT The current study explores the connection and affordances of talk and gesture in collaborative science problem-solving activities using an emerging analytical approach. A total of 15 three to five-member groups of middle school students participated in a set of clinical collaborative science problem-solving activities. Six groups (three low- and three high-performing groups) were selected for further analyses. The data consisted of successive statements in student conversations that were coded as different types of talk and gestures. Pearson Phi correlation test and Epistemic Network Analysis were used to analyze the data. We found that certain types of gesture were moderately associated with certain types of talk. In addition, we found high-performing groups were significantly different from low-performing groups in the use of higher cognitive engagement and collaborative regulation talks. We did not find a significant difference in the use of gestures on their own. However, we found that when talk and gestures were combined, high-performing groups tended to use higher cognitive engagement and collaborative regulation talks with representing and pointing gestures. These findings support previous studies on the affordances of talk and gesture in collaborative science activities and provide more evidence for how multimodality is important in science learning.

Perceived contribution of a hybrid serious game to the development of collaborative problem solving among undergraduate nursing students: A mixed method design

BackgroundCommunity health nurses collaborate in teams to address client care, organise services, and conduct preventive activities. Hence, it is crucial for students in this work context, to practise and enhance their collaborative problem-solving (CPS) skills. To facilitate this, a hybrid serious game called "Carion" was developed, immersing second-year nursing students in a semester-long experience of working as district nurses in self-managed teams. The game challenges them to collectively tackle authentic and fictional problems. However, the extent and manner in which this hybrid serious game contributes to students' CPS skill development is unknown. AimThe aim of this study is to explore how students perceive the development of CPS by doing assignments carried out in the learning context of the hybrid serious game Carion. ParticipantsTwo teams each consisting of five second-year nursing students, were selected for the qualitative case study. Two lecturers acting as team coaches also participated in this study. 110 (response rate 61 %) second-year students participated in the quantitative survey at the beginning of the semester, 109 students at the end of the semester. MethodsThe study is a mixed method design. The qualitative component involves a case study while the quantitative component consists of an online survey. Qualitative and quantitative data regarding collaborative problem solving was collected at different time points using focus group interviews, one-on-one interviews, digital logbooks and an online self-assessment tool. ResultsQualitative analysis revealed insights into three key themes: (1) Collaboration, encompassing consulting with each other, and capitalising on each other’s qualities and strengths; (2) Problem solving, encompassing quicker and easier problem solving, allocating assignments, coming to a joint solution, and problem-solving method; and (3) Learning from each other, encompassing learning from each other’s knowledge and experience, and from each other’s ideas. No growth in collaborative problem-solving development was statistically shown in the group. ConclusionsThis study gives an ambiguous view on students' perception of their CPS development through involvement in various Carion assignments. Based on this exploratory investigation, prematurely labelling Carion as a potential educational environment for developing CPS among undergraduate nursing students in community healthcare would be unwarranted. Further research is needed, particularly in scrutinising the interplay between CPS and diverse learning activities, assignments and learning outcomes within this specific hybrid serious game context.

Discuss It! Collaborating on the Tortoise and Hare Task

The authors share an online collaborative problem-solving activity that integrates support for students’ developing conceptual understanding, focused engagement, and positive feelings of agency and identity.

Assessing verbal interaction of adult learners in computer‐supported collaborative problem solving

AbstractThe objective of this study is to explore new ways of assessing collaborative problem solving (CPS) processes based on different modalities of audio data and their combination. The data collection took place in an educational lab setting during an experiment with adult teams from professional contexts who collaboratively solved multiple problems as part of a CPS training. From audio data, both verbal (ie, speech) and non‐verbal (ie, pitch) aspects were extracted. Four analysis methods were used, including (a) content analysis; (b) linguistic inquiry and word count; (c) verbal entrainment analysis; and (d) acoustic–prosodic entrainment based on pitch data. Insights are given into the CPS processes of the participating groups using these measures and relevant relationships between some of these measures are further investigated. Based on content analysis, it was found that most of the interactions during the CPS process are task oriented, whereas team‐oriented interactions are less present. Second, three measures of proportion of contribution in CPS were investigated and clear differences in participation patterns between and within teams were found. We suggest that a combination of utterance count and words per sentence could provide valuable insights for quantity and equality of participation. Third, the study explored pronoun use and found that the most frequently used personal pronouns were first‐person singular. Next, the results indicated a relationship between pronoun use and the relative frequency of interactions. Fourth, a rather weak relationship between lexical entrainment measures and the acoustic–prosodic measures were found, suggesting that these measures are indicative of separate communicative aspects in CPS. This study contributes to a better understanding of which type of audio‐based data is most informative to teachers and students as a feedback or assessment tool. This study complements previous research as it focuses on spoken human‐to‐human communication collected in an authentic context. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Support and guidance systems for learning coaches, teachers and learners are needed to foster the educational quality of collaborative problem solving (CPS) activities. CPS is a complex process and measuring the quality of CPS processes remains challenging. Multimodal learning analytics, focusing on verbal and non‐verbal data sources and using content analysis, linguistic inquiry and word count and verbal and acoustic entrainment measures could be valuable to measure the quality of CPS. What this paper adds The majority of interactions during CPS processes are task oriented or cognitive of nature, whereas team‐oriented interactions are less present. Utterance count and words per sentence should be used in combination, as they are indicative of different aspects. Pronoun use in learners' discourse is related to the types of CPS interactions. Lexical entrainment measures and acoustic–prosodic are indicative of distinctive communicative aspects in CPS. Implications for practice and/or policy Quality indicators of CPS processes should include both verbal and non‐verbal measures of students' interactions. Educational researchers and the (Edtech) industry should further leverage their forces to foster the development of (semi‐)automated systems for measuring the quality of CPS processes. It should be further investigated how quality indicators of CPS processes can be most meaningful to trainers, teachers and learners, for example, through the use of dashboards.

Individuals in a group: exploring engagement patterns via within-group configurations of role profiles and their impact on performance in collaborative problem solving

ABSTRACT Collaborative problem-solving (CPS) has been widely used in K-12, higher education, and informal learning to enhance the quality of student learning. Understanding the relationship between learning engagement and group performance is crucial for CPS pedagogy and analytics. However, few empirical studies investigated individual engagement role profiles in CPS and the impact of individual engagement, as reflected in within-group configurations of role profiles, on learning performance. In this study, deep learning was employed to evaluate learner engagement, cluster analysis was performed to identify engagement role profiles, and the qualitative cases were used to in-depth compare within-group configurations of role profiles in higher- and lower-achieving groups. The results showed that six distinct role profiles with varying levels of cognitive and socio-emotional engagement have been identified: free-rider, normal-constructer, immersed-engager, balanced-engager, questioning-refuter, and active-constructer. In addition, high-achieving groups were generally characterized by dominant role profiles of active-constructers and balanced-engagers, while lower-achieving groups were characterized by dominant role profiles of free-riders. Based on these findings, some implications for promoting high-quality collaborative learning through optimal design and structure of CPS activities are discussed.

Using Student-Led Tutorials to Improve Student Performance in Challenging Courses

<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Contribution:</i> This article describes how a peer learning strategy called student-led tutorials (SLTs) can improve student performance in an electromagnetism course (EM). This study provides empirical evidence on how promoting student active participation in collaborative problem-solving activities improves performance rates. <p xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <i>Background:</i> In 2019, an EM bachelor course introduced SLTs as a strategy to improve the 40% passing rates. Before SLTs, students perceived this course as very hard, uninteresting, disengaging, and nonfundamental to their studies. <p xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <i>Intended Outcomes:</i> A participatory environment that promotes active learning can deepen understanding of EM through problem discussion and peer collaboration. <p xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <i>Application Design:</i> This study uses an action research approach to analyze teaching practices and students performance. Based on this analysis, SLT is implemented and the results are examined. Drawing on professors’ research on engineering education, traditional practice hours were transformed into SLT hours. Passing rates before and after the intervention were compared and correlated with SLT participation. In-depth qualitative interviews with students were conducted to understand how SLT related to their learning process. <p xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <i>Findings:</i> Since the intervention, the course passing rates increased 20%. More importantly, the grade distribution changed from a steep double exponential shape to a normal curve suggesting more students are doing better. There is a positive correlation between SLT participation and student performance. Students highly valued SLTs as a teaching strategy because it allowed discussion, enabled keeping up with the course pace, and created a culture of collaboration. Students also valued the mandatory aspect of SLTs, though they mentioned it increased the course workload.

Understanding college students’ cognitive engagement in online collaborative problem-solving: A multimodal data analysis

Laboratory experience is critical to foster college students’ collaborative problem-solving (CPS) abilities, but whether students stay cognitively engaged in CPS tasks during online laboratory sessions remains unknown. This study applied multimodal data analysis to examine college students’ (N = 36) cognitive engagement in CPS during their online experimentation experience. Groups of three collaborated on CPS tasks via shared worksheets and computer-based simulations on videoconferences. Portable electroencephalogram instruments were used to determine students’ levels of cognitive engagement in CPS activities. The multimodal data analysis (e.g., electroencephalogram, surveys, and artifacts) results showed a significant difference in students’ cognitive engagement between different phases of CPS. The students’ cognitive engagement significantly differed between groups who did and did not complete the task. Additionally, intrinsic motivation predicted students’ cognitive engagement in the completion groups while self-efficacy was the primary predictor of cognitive engagement for the groups who did not complete the task.

Entrepreneurial Education Model Based on Interactive Technology and Cognitive Psychology

In order to encourage college students to innovate and start businesses in order to alleviate the increasingly serious employment pressure, all sectors of society attach great importance to the cultivation of College Students’ entrepreneurial ability. However, due to the lack of social presence awareness of learners, the interaction willingness of entrepreneurship education model is low, and the teaching effect is not strong. This article takes “learner interaction” as the core, takes the design of collaborative problem-solving learning activities as the starting point, and selects four influencing factors of the importance of learners in the interactive network, including point centrality, intermediary centrality, proximity centrality, and the object of interaction, from the macro, meso, and micro levels of cohesion of the interactive network. Based on the level of social presence, the core content of the interaction model of information perception, emotional experience and feedback exchange is determined according to social presence, and an interaction model to improve students’ social presence in online learning is constructed. The example verification shows that this method can significantly improve the learning participation of entrepreneurship education learners, and the on-the-spot manifestation of learners’ social practice is more significant.

How Do Table Shape, Group Size, and Gender Affect On-Task Actions in Computer Education Open-Ended Tasks

Contribution: This article presents a study that adds evidence to the field of computer education by focusing on the interaction between shapes of tables, group size, and gender, and their effects on on-task collaborative learning actions. By studying the collaborative learning environment in the context of computer education, the aim is to understand how different on-task actions are affected by the mentioned factors. Background: Previous research on collaborative learning space in the collaborative computer education context with the focus on the group formation, gender aspect, and analysis of on-task actions. Research Questions: Do different table shapes have different effects on open-ended computer education on-task actions for different groups sizes (two and three participants) and for different genders? Methodology: In order to study a collaborative problem-solving activity that is based on creating a prototype of a responsive toy, two main conditions were examined: table shape (round or rectangular) and how this interacts with group size (two or three participants) and gender. University students were engaged in design tasks conducted in small groups following the Jigsaw pattern. Findings: Results show that students engage more in interaction with physical artifacts when collaboration is conducted in dyads. In terms of gender, the analysis shows a tendency of female students to engage more when the activity is conducted in dyads. Furthermore, the combination of a dyad structure and a round table resulted in more discussion and nonverbal interaction.

Understand group interaction and cognitive state in online collaborative problem solving: leveraging brain-to-brain synchrony data

The purpose of this study aimed to analyze the process of online collaborative problem solving (CPS) via brain-to-brain synchrony (BS) at the problem-understanding and problem-solving stages. Aiming to obtain additional insights than traditional approaches (survey and observation), BS refers to the synchronization of brain activity between two or more people, as an indicator of interpersonal interaction or common attention. Thirty-six undergraduate students participated. Results indicate the problem-understanding stage showed a higher level of BS than the problem-solving stage. Moreover, the level of BS at the problem-solving stage was significantly correlated with task performance. Groups with all high CPS skill students had the highest level of BS, while some of the mixed groups could achieve the same level of BS. BS is an effective indicator of CPS to group performance and individual interaction. Implications for the online CPS design and possible supports for the process of online CPS activity are also discussed.

Exploring the effect of three scaffoldings on the collaborative problem-solving processes in China\u2019s higher education

Collaborative problem-solving (CPS) engages students in solving ill-structured problems, creating group knowledge, and developing self-regulation and collaboration skills. Different scaffoldings, such as minimal-guided, task-oriented, and idea-oriented, can be used to facilitate students’ CPS activities, but their effects have not been comprehensively explored. In this research, we use minimally-guided, task-oriented, and idea-oriented scaffoldings to promote Chinese university students’ online CPS activities and use a multi-method approach to analyze the effects of three scaffolding on collaboration. The results indicate relatively complicated collaborative processes and outcomes supported by three scaffoldings. It is initially shown that the idea-centered scaffolding strengthens students’ connections between idea contribution, metacognitive regulation, and knowledge artifact behaviors, which are critical factors for improving the CPS quality. Based on the empirical research results, we conclude that future instructional design should carefully consider the educational culture, time constraint, and student regulation to better facilitate CPS practices.

Comparison of Mini-Game-Based Flipped Classroom and Video-Based Flipped Classroom: An Analysis of Learning Performance, Flow and Concentration on Discussion

The flipped classroom has been widely discussed in recent years, but some important issues still need in-depth exploration, including how to increase learners’ autonomous learning motivation before the class, how to work with in-class discussion activities, and how to improve learner’s concentration on discussions and lower their learning anxieties for high-level cognitive thinking. This study integrated theories of digital game-based learning (DGBL) and flipped classrooms, proposing the mini-game-based flipped classroom (MGFC) teaching model. In this teaching model, learners used a mini-educational game developed based on cognitive theories for DGBL autonomous learning in class, and then worked with collaborative problem solving (CPS) activities to improve learning and discussions. The study involved a quasi-experiment to evaluate this teaching model. The experimental group used MGFC, while the control group used the traditional flipped classroom teaching method by watching the video first and then having group discussions. The study analyzed the differences in the learning performance and acceptance of the two groups, and analyzed gender differences. Moreover, this study used quantitative content analysis (QCA) to explore learner’s concentration on their discussion content. The results showed that the MGFC group had significantly higher scores than the control group in their learning performance and acceptance. The MGFC group also showed a high level of flow. The QCA results showed that MGFC enhanced the frequency of learner’s learning discussions and their concentration in the learning process.

Facilitating peer-led group research through virtual collaboration spaces: an exploratory research study

Peer-led group learning is a variation of collaborative learning and is based on ‘small groups of students meeting regularly with a peer – one who has additional expertise in the subject matter – to work on problems collaboratively’ (Pazos, Micari, and Light 2010). In this study, we explored how a Slack team environment could be used in a blended course design to support students working remotely on individual research projects, helping them in collaborative trouble-shooting and problem-solving activities with their ‘near peer’. We drew on lessons learned from an initial trial (2017–2018 cohort) to inform a revised peer-led research design (2018–2019 cohort). Our findings demonstrate the potential of collaborative platforms such as Slack to support near-peer learning, providing distinct channels for questioning, ideas sharing and agile problem-solving support in response to individual queries. The peer-led support contributed to high levels of engagement with the project work and deeper learning, helping less confident students to learn from group members and achieve positive outcomes in their own project work. We discuss the necessary conditions for effective peer-led learning to take place within a virtual space – identifying the clear communication of instructional roles, socialisation of students and responsiveness of near peers as factors influencing the adoption of the targeted learning methods – which we addressed in our revised peer-led design.

Collaborative problem-solving: how to implement and measure it in science teaching and learning

Collaborative problem-solving (CPS) is an essential competency in the 21st century. However, this skill is quite complex due to the two-dimensional domain having to measure at once. This study is a literature review aimed to presents various CPS measurement methods from empirical research for the past 17 years. Hence, teachers can get insight to implement and to develop CPS assessment mainly for training students to solve complex problems. Based on this review, there are two broad methods to measure CPS including using computer environment and real-life context. The former allows measurement to be more accurate and quicker, while the latter enables students to experience face-to-face interaction during problem solving. However, the development of CPS assessment using a computer needs professional ICT and an adequate number of computers as well as a high internet connection. In Indonesia, the implementation of computer-based assessment faces many challenges, and only some schools in the city centre can meet that requirement. Hence, it can be an alternative to measure the interaction of students during the CPS activity by putting high consideration of the using pedagogical content to facilitate CPS environment.