Abstract
Recent technological developments have provided new environments for learning, giving rise to the question of how characteristics of such new learning environments can facilitate the process of learning in specific domains. The focus of this thesis is on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) in the domain of history. CSCL aims at
... read more
enhancing and supporting peer interaction and the joint construction of products through technology. It is specifically investigated how features of a CSCL environment can elicit and support historical reasoning in dialogue and text writing. The CSCL environment used enabled students to collaborate on a historical inquiry task and in writing an essay. Students collaborated in pairs, each on their own computer and separated from their partner. Communication took place by chat. The analyses included chat discussions, collaboratively written texts, and individual learning outcomes.
The first study investigated the effects of the type of historical inquiry question on collaborative historical reasoning in chat discussions and text writing, and on individual learning outcomes. Two inquiry questions were compared: an evaluative question (‘Were the changes in the behavior of the Dutch youths in the 1960’s revolutionary?’) and an explanatory question (‘How can the changes in the behavior of the Dutch youths in the 1960’s be explained?’). Ten pairs of students (pre-university education) participated in this study, five pairs in each of the two conditions. From this study it can be concluded that an evaluative inquiry question is more powerful to elicit historical reasoning, for it resulted in significantly more historical reasoning episodes, more elaboration, more co-construction, and texts of higher quality (however no differences were found for the post-test).
The second study investigated the effects of the joint construction of external representations on historical reasoning. By providing representational guidance, the study aimed at promoting co-elaborated and historical reasoning. Since it is assumed that the representational format may be of influence on the collaborative process and outcomes, three representational formats, namely an argumentative diagram, an argument list and a matrix, were compared with a control group. Sixty-five student pairs from pre-university education participated. The results indicated that each representational format has its own affordances and constraints. For example, Matrix users talked more about historical changes, whereas Diagram users were more focused on the balance in their argumentation. However, this did not result in differences in the quality of historical reasoning in the essay, nor in outcomes on the posttest.
In sum, it can be concluded that CSCL is useful in fostering historical reasoning, as it can offer both task-related and communicative support. Within such an environment, a collaborative writing task, involving the study of multiple sources and addressing an evaluative question, has been shown to be especially suited to elicit historical reasoning. The reasoning processes so elicited take place not only within the communication tool used (in this case the chat box), but also within the joint construction of products. The characteristics of the representational tools used, play an important role in shaping the historical reasoning processes elicited.
show less
