Research On The Relationship Between Collaborative Tasks,Interactive Discussion And Learning Engagement In CSCL

With the development of information technology,people have more and more in-depth understanding of teaching and learning,computer supported collaborative learning(CSCL)has been widely recognized in the field of educational technology.In the CSCL environment,the collaborative task is a key factor to affect the effectiveness of collaborative learning,collaborative tasks have different effects on learners'participation,interaction and cognitive process.Therefore,it is necessary to design reasonable collaborative tasks.The starting point of this study is that the collaborative task will make different demands on the social interaction in the process of collaboration,which will have an impact on the outcome of cooperation.CSCL puts the individual knowledge construction in team's learning,when learners are doing learning tasks with other members of the team,in order to make the collaboration more effective,learners should not only make themselves wholeheartedly but also need to ensure that the team members understand each other.Therefore,this kind of learning is not only a process of knowledge construction,but also a process of discussion and negotiation with the team members by using different strategies to complete the collaborative task.That is to say,different collaborative tasks have different requirements for the collaborative discussion and negotiation strategies,and the social interaction process is also different.Exploring differences in social behavior has significance to the deep understanding of collaborative learning.Based on the theory of social constructivism,this study started from the task-based collaborative learning,designed three kinds of collaborative learning tasks(concept-learning,problem-solving and design).An empirical study was carried out in the geography class of grade seven,trying to understand the learning process under the condition of different learning tasks.Through the use of quantitative and qualitative data processing methods,analyzed the process of the discussion in each collaborative learning groups and the three different dimensions of learning engagement,the results showed that the collaborative design task was more likely to cause questioning within the group as well as maintain and build shared understanding,and had a positive effect on learners' emotional engagement and behavior engagement.The collaborative problem-solving task also had a positive effect on behavior engagement,encouraging learners to actively participate in the collaboration.However,the collaborative concept-learning task was mainly about information exchange and knowledge transfer.The study also found that the type of collaborative learning tasks was not affect learners'cognitive engagement.Based on the above findings,the collaborative design task and the collaborative problem-solving task play an important role in the promotion of deep discussion and engagement,which can be considered in the CSCL task design to maximize the advantages of the two collaborative tasks.