Promoting the drawing of inferences in collaboration: Insights from two experimental studies

Abstract

Collaborative problem-solving tasks often require learners to co-construct new knowledge by drawing inferences from distributed information. We investigated the impact of information distribution and instructional support on university students' collaboration in such tasks. Two experiments using specifically designed tasks show a robust negative effect of distributed information on inferences. Detailed analyses of collaborators' discussions in Study 1 highlight the importance of specific inference patterns. Study 2 aimed to support these patterns of collaborative reasoning in a training phase, and tested the effects of support in a test phase. Two support measures were realized: written information on task difficulties and collaboration strategies, and an inference tutoring tool providing feedback and prompts based on an online assessment of students' collaboration. Results show that reflected experience with the training task improved subsequent unsupported collaboration. The best performance was achieved when the tutoring tool had been available during the training task.