Using Explanatory Knowledge During Collaborative Problem Solving in Science

This research evaluates the effects of a scaffolded explanation-based approach to collaborative discussion on students' understanding of photosynthesis. This approach consists of instruction and prompts encouraging students to engage in the processes of explaining and justifying one's personal knowledge and comparing it to scientific knowledge. Forty-eight 4th- and 5th-grade students, identified as having high or average "intentional" approaches to learning, were divided into 3 groups (high, average control [AC], and average intervention [AI]). Students worked both collaboratively and individually on 2 reasoning tasks (problem-explanation and concept maps) in the domain of photosynthesis. The results of the concept-mapping tasks indicated that the students in the AI group developed a more accurate scientific and functional understanding of photosynthesis than the AC group who did not receive the intervention. This study also confirmed the prediction that the AI group would more closely resemble the high intentional learning group by constructing explanations that were conceptually more advanced as well as retaining and acquiring more subject matter knowledge than those of the AC group. The scaffolded explanation-based intervention did not have a significant effect on the structure of students' explanations. This research supports the importance of the nature of students' discussion (i.e., explanation) to advance their beliefs about scientific phenomena and emphasizes the usefulness of explanation and concept-mapping techniques as evaluative measures of student knowledge during collaborative problem solving.