Talking and working together collaboratively: how children’s verbal dialogue contributes to problem-solving and cognitive development

Collaborative learning is recognised by educators as a valuable educational activity showing positive effects on student achievement and is reported to be a commonly used teaching strategy in many classrooms.

This thesis aims to identify the impact of group work on pupil learning outcomes.

A systematic literature review of 13 papers from 2000 - 2016 showed that reasoning and problem-solving measures improved following peer group interactions where children had been trained to use reasoning and argumentation in their discussions.

A considerable variation was found in the features of each intervention, including the length of training required.

Given the academic potential to be gained from collaborative learning activities, the empirical study explored how talk between children develops when they work in groups and anything can be learned from this to assist educational psychologists in their formulation of evidence-based strategies around group work.

A case-study design using a microgenetic method was used to detail the changes Year 5 children made in their talk while working collaboratively on problems from Raven's Progressive Matrices over the course of six weekly sessions.

The children's talk was analysed quantitatively by content analysis according to key words in context and four talk typologies: disputational, cumulative, incipient and elaborate exploratory talk.

Higher quality 'exploratory' talk was found in one group, which preceded a substantial increase in correctly answered problems.

Lower task-specific ability children were found to make less use of exploratory talk and were more likely to engage in a dialogue that was disputational in nature and less supportive of group work outcomes.

Implications for professional practice are discussed.