The purpose of this study was to build a descriptive model of social-interaction processes of natural and artificially imposed student partnerships engaged in mathematical problem-solving activity. The theoretical perspective of this study was based on the socio-cognitive model of learning which hypothesizes that cognitively effective social interactions will generate perturbations or disequilibrations in subject's existing knowledge schemes. / To enable the development of the model, questions relating to partnerships roles, differences in problem-solving strategies between partners, and evidence of coordinated problem-solving activity were of particular interest. Through the use of nonroutine mathematics tasks that had the potential of being problematic, an environment for discrepant points of view was provided. / The study was conducted in two phases. First a fourth grade class was observed biweekly for a period of eight weeks to document and analyze interaction patterns. Based on the initial observation, two natural dyads and three natural triads were selected for the second phase of the study. In the second phase of the study the selected natural partnerships and researcher imposed artificial partnerships were videotaped in problem-solving sessions where nonroutine mathematics tasks were given to the partnerships. Artificial partnerships were determined through researcher imposed changes in partnership participants based on the observation phase of the study and an initial analysis of the natural partnership videotapes. / Major themes that emerged in the qualitative analysis of the data were: gender differences, levels of collaboration, partnership roles, methods of resolving conflict, and effects of setting changes. A synthesis of major themes revealed a descriptive model in which three factors contributed to the level and quality of task-focused interactions. The three factors were: the type of mathematics task posed, the presence of a socially dominant partner, and the degree of cognitive difference between partners. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-09, Section: A, page: 3092. / Major Professor: Janice Flake. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76721 |
| Contributors | Erle, Sharon Borntrager., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 223 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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