Crook's three cognitive benefits of peer collaboration: articulation, conflict, and co-construction¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article presents Crook's (1994) account that "peer collaboration offers three cognitive benefits: articulation, conflict, and co-construction." Articulation: students must make intuitive and emerging ideas explicit and public, and the pressure to communicate well helps them gain conceptual clarity. Conflict: when students disagree they must justify and defend positions, forcing reflection, based on the Piagetian perspective of socio-cognitive conflict. Co-construction: students build shared knowledge by complementing and building on each other's ideas, based on the Vygotskian perspective that understanding is first rehearsed between people before it is developed within the learner.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Students working together on a task that neither could do on their own prior to the collaborative engagement, starting at roughly the same level of competence

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• High school science students working in dyads

Target Learning Objectives¶

• Conceptual change in science
• Making ideas explicit and public
• Reflecting on and reconstructing conceptions

Claims¶

• Peer Conflicts Conditional On Reflection [+M]
• Personal Construction Required Stable Conceptual Change [+M]
• Computer-supported collaborative learning with simulation programs fostered conceptual change for students who were cognitively engaged and prepared to reflect on and reconstruct their conceptions [+W]

Related Theories¶

Examples¶

• Peer Discussion
• Peer Interaction

Key Sources¶

• Tao, Ping-Kee; Gunstone, Richard F. (1997). Conceptual Change in Science through Collaborative Learning at the Computer. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (70th, Oak Brook, IL, March 21-24, 1997). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED406151