The lifespan and impact of students’ ideas shared during classroom science inquiry

Camillia Matuk, Ma Wanjing Anya, Garima Sharma, Marcia C. Linn

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Sharing ideas can strengthen students’ science explanations. Yet, how to guide uses of peers’ ideas, and what the impacts of those ideas are on students’ learning, are open questions. We implemented a web-based cell biology unit with 116 grade 7 students, and explored how peers’ ideas are used during explanation building, and how prompts to draw on peers to either diversify or reinforce existing ideas impacted the quality of students’ written explanations. Among other findings, exchanging ideas with peers led to all students improving their explanation quality upon revision; and students prompted to diversify their ideas showed greater learning gains by the end of the unit, while students prompted to reinforce ideas, who used more peer-generated ideas in preparation to write their explanations, produced higher quality explanations. This study builds our understanding of the influence of peer ideas on learning, and offers insight into supporting students in engaging effectively with peers’ ideas.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationA Wide Lens
Subtitle of host publicationCombining Embodied, Enactive, Extended, and Embedded Learning in Collaborative Settings - 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, CSCL 2019 - Conference Proceedings
EditorsKristine Lund, Gerald P. Niccolai, Elise Lavoue, Cindy Hmelo-Silver, Gahgene Gweon, Michael Baker
PublisherInternational Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS)
Pages49-56
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781732467231
StatePublished - 2019
Event13th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning - A Wide Lens: Combining Embodied, Enactive, Extended, and Embedded Learning in Collaborative Settings, CSCL 2019 - Lyon, France
Duration: Jun 17 2019Jun 21 2019

Publication series

NameComputer-Supported Collaborative Learning Conference, CSCL
Volume1
ISSN (Print)1573-4552

Conference

Conference13th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning - A Wide Lens: Combining Embodied, Enactive, Extended, and Embedded Learning in Collaborative Settings, CSCL 2019
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityLyon
Period6/17/196/21/19

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Education

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