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.