Dynamical Systems Measures of Small Group Functioning
| Autor: | Ricca, Bernard P., Jordan, Michelle E. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2023 |
| DOI: | 10.26262/ijce.v3i2.9463 |
| Popis: | Small collaborative group learning is part of many classrooms, but the objective evaluation of group functioning is not well established. Two dynamical systems measures, burstiness and power law fits of data distributions, have been used in other psychological contexts to explore system health and overall functioning from a complex systems perspective. Those measures are used in this study to explore self-organization in collaborative learning groups. Data were collected from three groups of fifth-graders undertaking an open-ended engineering design challenge. The groups were recorded, the audio transcribed, and talk turns coded for macrocognitive contributions. The burstiness and distribution of macrocognitive codes were investigated to determine how burstiness and distribution might be used as measures of group functioning. Burstiness values indicate self-organization of groups via macrocognitive codes. Power law analyses show a general decrease in the shape parameter and increase in group goodness-of-fit values over time. These results indicate increasing organization and flexibility in small groups. Because there is little prior theory regarding applying these measures to classroom situations, the findings indicate potential fruitful areas for theorizing about group-level functioning. Keywords: small groups, dynamic systems, macrocognition, collaborative learning, power laws, burstiness, complex systems International Journal of Complexity in Education, Vol 3, No 2 (2022) |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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