This research pilot outlines a Master's project undertaken by the
author with the involvement of students in his Grade Three class. The
question of examining the role of collaboration in the development of
and changing of student understanding, arose from the author's
observations of children's reading and writing behaviors within the
classroom.
The pilot study was carried out in two class sessions of 90 minutes
each. In session one, the class of 22 students, viewed without
discussion, 11 pictures sequentially- arranged. An independent
writing assignment followed, the children creating stories matching
the picture information.
In session two, five of the original students were asked to repeat
the same writing exercise with the addition of a joint-discussion
period conducted by the author prior to the independent writing
activity. Included in the study were both typed copies of these
student's original writing, arranged for comparison, a transcript of
the collaborative session and individual and summative analyses.
Discussion and conclusions were based on an analysis of the stories
written by the five children participating in the second,
collaborative session. Instead of choosing a group of children
representing a cross-section of class ability, the author elected to
choose five students described as needing varying degrees of support
within the class. This was done in order to focus primarily on the
role of collaboration in the changing of student understanding.