Editor’s note: The first two articles in this issue’s selections from journals arose from research presented at the 2004 IASCE conference in Singapore. Also, the editor would like to thank Rashmi Kumar for her help with this issue’s selections. In addition to the usual abstracts of journal articles, the final abstract is that of a doctoral dissertation.

Waite, S., & Davis, B. (2006) Collaboration as a catalyst for critical thinking in undergraduate research, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 30(4), 405-419.

Critical thinking and working together are key skills for lifelong learning, but current assessment practices do not necessarily support their acquisition, given the instrumental attitudes to learning of many higher education students. A small-scale action research project was undertaken within the context of tutoring on a research module of an undergraduate early childhood studies course. This research module offered a fruitful context for an examination of the potential for collaboration to act as a catalyst for the development of critical thinking. The data are explored principally through the theoretical framework of critical thinking dispositions devised by Norris and Ennis (1989).

Waite, S. [S.J.Waite@plymouth.ac.uk], & Davis, B. (2006) Developing undergraduate research skills in a Faculty of Education: Motivation through collaboration, Higher Education Research and Development, 25, (4), 403-419.

This paper explores motivational factors underpinning undergraduates’ learning of research skills through individual research projects with collaborative tutorials. Research has long pointed to group support, positive affect and scaffolding as important for motivating and facilitating learning. Furthermore, UK government priorities have placed an increasing emphasis on the need to develop the key skills of inquiry and working with others. However, this is set in a context of assessment and practice in higher education that encourages individualist and instrumental perspectives on gaining competencies and knowledge. Traditionally undergraduate research skills have been taught through lectures and small-scale projects chosen by the students with individual tutorial support in a Faculty of Education. Here our action research introduced collaborative tutorials as another element of teaching. We examine the process of collaboration to explore factors that support motivation to learn through two principal theoretical frameworks.

* Senge, P. M., Lichtenstein, B. B., Kaeufer, K., Bradbury, H., & Carroll, J. S. (2007). Collaborating for systemic change. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48 (2), 44-53.

Through its work, Society for Organizational Learning (of which two of the authors are founding members) has learned that successful collaborative efforts embrace three interconnected types of work — conceptual, relational and action-driven — which together build a healthy “learning ecology” for systemic change. In this article, the authors offer examples from particular projects in which this learning ecology provided an important foundation for substantive progress, and they draw lessons for companies and managers regarding each of the three types of work. Ultimately, the authors conclude that conceptual, relational and action-driven work must be systemically interwoven and that there is little real precedent for that. They offer several guidelines for how it can be accomplished, emphasizing leadership and transactional networks. Finally, they pose three questions that must be answered if systemic solutions are to be successful: (1) How can we get beyond benchmarking to building learning communities? (2) What is the right balance between specifying goals and creating space for reflection and innovation? (3) What is the right balance between private interest and public knowledge? [The following section was not part of the original abstract] The article gives a pragmatic and useful definition of learning communities, which are “most evident when people are openly discussing real problems and asking for help, and they grow as people offer help simply because they want to.” Leaders who are able to foster the implementation of action-oriented projects within learning communities use three phases to create systemic change within organizations.

These are:

1. Cosensing: To develop shared understanding of current and emerging realities

2. Coinspiring: To share commitments and relevant knowledge

3. Cocreating: To design new plans/pilots/prototypes

All these need to be complemented with “time for reflection and dialogue.”

D’Eon, M., Proctor, P., & Reeder, B. (2007). Comparing two cooperative small group formats used with physical therapy and medical students. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 44(1), 31-44.

This study compared 'Structured Controversy' (a semi-formal debate like small group activity) with a traditional open discussion format for medical and physical therapy students. We found that those students who had participated in Structured Controversy changed their personal opinion on the topic more than those who were in the Open Discussion groups. Students in the Structured Controversy group also commented more often that being 'forced' to explore both sides of the topic made a difference to their learning. We conclude that the time and effort invested in organizing the Structured Controversy experience for students is worthwhile because it encourages students to more seriously consider many aspects of an argument and helps promote sustained change of opinion.  

Tripp, A. [atripp@towson.edu], Rizzo, T. L., & Webbert, L. (2007). Inclusion in Physical Education: Changing the culture. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 78(2), 32-37.

 Functional exclusion occurs when physical educators include a student with a disability in the physical education class, but the student does not meaningfully participate in an instructional program with his or her peers. Inclusion is a collaborative, student-focussed process because students with disabilities learn life skills and enjoy the opportunities to grow up with their peers in the dynamic environment that a meaningful, high-quality, physical education program can provide. Program administrators must understand that, for students with disabilities to become truly physically educated and prepared for an active lifestyle outside of school, they must be complete members of the school community by experiencing physical education naturally and spontaneously with peers (Brown et al., 1989).

Goran, D., & Braude, S. [braude@wustl.edu] (2007). Social & cooperative learning in the solving of case histories. The American Biology Teacher, 69(2), 80-84.

Human Biology courses are typically offered for non-biology majors who, like students in high school biology courses, have varying degrees of motivation and background. The primary focus is on explaining the biology behind human health and disease, but human ecology, human evolution, and human genetics may also be covered. Hence, Human Biology tends to be a content-rich course, the content overlaps significantly with high school biology courses, and it is usually taught in frontal lecture format. Reading the text may be the only student-directed component of the course. Our goals were to transform our Human Biology course into a more student-directed course with more quantitative problem solving and critical thinking than is typical of science courses for the nonmajor. Frederiksen (1984) points out that development of problem-solving skills may indirectly foster development of pattern recognition and creativity, which are valuable skills for students in any discipline, at any level. We accomplished our goal of fostering more student-directed critical thinking and problem solving by incorporating case study exercises into a discussion section with a social and cooperative learning environment.

Finstein, R. F. [ritafin@cox.net], Yang, F. Y., & Jones, R. (2007). Build organizational skills in students with learning disabilities. Intervention in School and Clinic, 42(3), 174-178.

Lack of organizational skills can influence the work quality, the satisfaction of turning a paper in on time, and the self-worth of any student, but it is especially significant for students with LD. The peer-buddy relationship not only fosters cooperative learning but also contributes to the success or failure of performance in school in many ways (Borich, 2000). In another study, direct instruction in organizational strategies, such as time management, prioritizing, and study skills, increased student ability and awareness in organizing time, activities, and school work (Anday-Porter, Henne, & Horan, 2000).

Kurhila, J. [kurhila@cs.helsinki.fi], Miettinen, M., Nokelainen, P., & Tirri, H. (2007). EDUCO: Social navigation and group formation in student-centred e-learning. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 18(1), 65-83.

 EDUCO is a system that enhances the sense of other users in a collaborative learning environment by making the other users and their navigation visible to everyone else in the environment in real-time. This article presents EDUCO and empirical results from two university courses where EDUCO was used as a learning environment. In the first study we utilized the logged data for observing the effects of social navigation; in the second study we analyzed the formation of groups. The results of the first study do not indicate a heavy reliance on social navigation but suggest that real-time social navigation can have a positive impact on the feeling of a learning community in a web-course. The results from the second study suggest that group formation does not affect the grades received, even if the motivational profiles of the students are different.

Hurley, E. A. [eric_hurley@yahoo.com], & Allen, B. A. (2007). Asking the how questions: Quantifying group processes behaviors. The Journal of General Psychology, 134(1), 5-21.

The authors analyzed the group work behaviors of 132 grade school students to assess behavioral manifestations of group processes. The authors coded videotapes of students working together on a math-learning task to quantify the incidence of microbehaviors associated with process loss and process gain (I. D. Steiner, 1972). Factor analysis of 11 categories of coded behaviors revealed 3 factors that accounted for 67% of the explained variance. The factors were interpretable as process gain (PGV), process loss behavior directed outside the group (PLV-out), and process loss behavior directed into the group (PLV-In). The authors discuss correlations among variables derived from the factors and with other measures. Results support this method of quantifying group processes. The authors considered implications for the broader study of group processes.

Madrid, L. D. [leasher.madrid@colostate-pueblo.edu], Canas, M., & Ortega-Medina, M. (2007). Effects of team competition versus team cooperation in classwide peer tutoring.  The Journal of Educational Research, 100(3), 155-161.

 Sixteen Hispanic Spanish/English bilingual children (6 boys and 10 girls) participated in a single-subject design study. Their chronological ages ranged from 8 to 9.5 years. The classroom teacher identified all the children as academic at risk on the basis of a history of poor academic performance in spelling and low scores on the Metropolitan Achievement Tests (G. Prescott, I. Balow, T. Hogan, & R. Farr, 1978). The teachers assigned the students to each instructional condition according to a randomly selected sequence of instructional order. The 3 instructional interventions were (a) competitive team peer tutoring, (b) cooperative team peer tutoring, and (c) standard teacher-led instruction. The results of the study showed that although team competition and team cooperation resulted in higher levels of correct responding relative to the standard teacher-led condition, cooperative team peer tutoring resulted in the highest rate of correct responding. Practical implications of the findings are discussed. 

Ding, M., Li, X., Piccolo, D., & Kulm, G. [gkulm@coe.tamu.edu] (2007). Teacher interventions in cooperative-learning mathematics classes. The Journal of Educational Research, 100(3), 162-176.

The authors examined the extent to which teacher interventions focused on students' mathematical thinking in naturalistic cooperative-learning mathematics classroom settings. The authors also observed 6 videotapes about the same teaching content using similar curriculum from 2 states. They created 2 instruments for coding the quality of teacher intervention length, choice and frequency, and intervention. The results show the differences of teacher interventions to improve students' cognitive performance. The authors explained how to balance peer resource and students' independent thinking and how to use peer resource to improve students' thinking. Finally, the authors suggest detailed techniques to address students' thinking, such as identify, diversify, and deepen their thinking. 

Jeong, A. [jeong@coe.fsu.edu], & Davidson-Shivers. G. V. (2006). The effects of gender interaction patterns on student participation in computer-supported collaborative argumentation. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 54(6), 543-568.

In this study we examined response patterns in exchanges between males and females and their effects on gender participation in five online debates. Students classified messages into arguments, evidence, critiques, and elaborations while posting messages to the debates to facilitate argumentation and the sequential analysis of message-response sequences. The findings revealed no differences in number of critiques posted in response to arguments because females were just as likely as males to critique messages from both males and females, and because females responded to males with critiques at a higher than expected frequency. Posthoc analysis revealed strong indications that females posted fewer rebuttals to the critiques of females than males, and males posted more rebuttals to the critiques of females than females. The methods used in this study illustrate a process-oriented approach to explain and predict gender differences in participation and serve as a framework for future research on gender participation, group interaction, and strategies for facilitating collaborative argumentation and problem solving.

Barnhouse, S. M. [barnhouses@rowancabarrus.edu], & Smith, S. P. (2006). 

The evolution of a learning community. Teaching English in the Two Year College, 34(2), 185-193.

 his essay traces two teachers' experiences crossing spaces in a combined literature and history seminar where students explore American culture and diversity and engage in service learning. The model has evolved from paired classes with collaborative activities to a student-centered environment promoting active learning. This article offers practical advice for establishing cross-curricular pairings and suggests course content that promotes learning across curricula.

Punnarumol Temdee [punnarumol@mfu.ac.th] (2006). Of collaborative learning: An approach for emergent leadership roles identification by using social network analysis. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut's University of Technology (Thonburi).

All members of a collaborative learning team are expected to be fully connected as soon as the collaboration begins or at least before the deadline because this can promote reduction of free riding and the enhancement of team performance. Because the leadership role has a major influence of team effectiveness, this dissertation highlights this role so that the leader can successfully coordinate among all team members. However, identifying the leader in a collaborative learning team is challenging because this role is emergent and shifts over the course of the collaboration.  

This dissertation, thus, aims to identify emergent leaders by estimating the influence of the leaders instead of identifying the leadership functions as in the previous studies. The influence is interpreted by measuring members’ perceptions of the leaders from the network position of the leaders in a social network. The central most position of a star network is proposed as the leaders’ position because of the physical and logical appropriations. Physically, being in the middle of all members, it is easy for leaders to coordinate all members.  

Logically, this position reflects the influence of the leaders from three different social network points of views, which can be described by three social network measurements: degree of centrality, closeness and betweenness. The maximum degree of centrality represents the most expert power of the leaders. The maximum closeness represents the closest distance between leaders and others. The maximum betweenness represents the most interpersonal influence of the leaders on others. Consequently, the measurement called magnitude of leadership (MOL), which is the vector combination of those measurements, is proposed for representing the leadership perceptions of team members. The leader is any member having the highest MOL in the team.

The experiment with three pilot studies demonstrates that MOL effectively represents the leadership perceptions of team members. Additionally, MOL is investigated in two different aspects including factor analysis and the potential coordination ability of the leader. From factor analysis, degree of centrality significantly affects the leadership perceptions of team members, while there is a tendency for closeness and betweenness to change in the same manner as the perceptions of team members. Finally, a simulation was conducted to investigate the potential coordination ability of the leader. The simulation results show that the member having the highest MOL normally coordinates all members the fastest.