Angela M. O'Donnell

Knowledge Maps as Scaffolds for Cognitive Processing

Knowledge maps are node-link representations in which ideas are located in nodes and connected to other related ideas through a series of labeled links. The research on knowledge mapping in the last 12 years has produced a number of consistent findings. Students recall more central ideas when they learn from a knowledge map than when they learn from text and those with low verbal ability or low prior knowledge often benefit the most. The use of knowledge maps also appears to amplify the benefits associated with scripted cooperation. Learning from maps is enhanced by active processing strategies such as summarization or annotation and by designing maps according to gestalt principles of organization. Fruitful areas for future research on knowledge mapping include examining whether knowledge maps reduce cognitive load, how map learning is influenced by the structure of the information to be learned, and the possibilities for transfer. Implications for practice are briefly delineated.

Learning from peers: Beyond the rhetoric of positive results

This paper extends previous efforts to provide clarity to the field of cooperative learning. Various theoretical approaches to learning from peers are described, and the implications of these approaches for key instructional choices by teachers are delineated. The primary perspectives of interest in this paper were social-behavioral approaches and cognitive approaches. Potential sources of problems are identified, and suggestions for averting such problems are provided. The role of the teacher within the cooperative classroom is also discussed.

Effects of metacognitive and elaborative activity on cooperative learning and transfer

Abstract The effects of instructing pairs of students to engage in metacognitive activities (error correcting and key idea detection), elaborative activities (use of imagery, analogies, etc.), or neither during cooperative learning were examined for both initial cooperative learning and transfer to an individual learning task. The results suggest that metacognitive activity facilitates cooperative learning and elaborative activity facilitates transfer to individual learning. These findings have strong implications for the tailoring of cooperative learning strategies to instructional goals.

Individual and Distributed Cognitions in Interdisciplinary Teamwork: A Developing Case Study and Emerging Theory

We present a developing distributed cognition theory of interdisciplinary collaboration that incorporates concepts from both situated cognition and information-processing theory. This theoretical framework is being refined as it is used for analyzing interdisciplinary collaboration within the National Institute for Science Education (NISE). Our analyses are intended to improve scientific understanding of collaborative processes that influence productivity and quality of interdisciplinary work within the NISE and beyond. A critical group meeting in the early development of one interdisciplinary working team is analyzed using language and ideas from our theoretical perspective.

Interactive Effects of Prior Knowledge and Material Format on Cooperative Teaching

Abstract The purpose of the experiment was to determine the separate and combined effects of varied learning materials (knowledge maps or texts) and teaching props (overview maps or outlines) on the learning of 2 different sets of material within the context of cooperative teaching. The participants were assigned to 1 of 4 cooperative teaching groups that used knowledge maps or texts as study materials, teaching props, or both. Each dyad studied material on probability theory (PT) and on the autonomic nervous system (ANS). One participant was responsible for teaching 1 set of material and was the learner for the other set of material. The teachers significantly outperformed the learners on measures of recall that included content and organization. The effects of format of the study materials or communication props depended on the prior knowledge of the participants. Format of the materials affected scores on organization for the PT passage but affected the content of the recall of the ANS passage. The results of the experiment delineated some of the conditions under which knowledge maps and texts are effective as learning or teaching tools.

Cooperative Writing Direct Effects and Transfer

This study compared the performance of students who cooperated on an instruction writing task with students who worked alone. The effects of transfer from a cooperative experience to an individual writing task was also assessed. A total of 36 students were recruited from introductory psychology classes and were randomly assigned to a cooperative or individual condition. The results of the study showed that students in the cooperative condition significantly outperformed the individual group on a measure of the communicative quality of the writing on both the initial task and on the transfer task (ps <.01). No differences between the groups were found on a measure of the completeness of the written instruction on either task (ps >.05). It appears that cooperating dyads can improve the communicative quality of their instruction writing.

Effects of explicit incentives on scripted and unscripted cooperation.

The effects of explicit incentives on outcomes resulting from scripted and unscripted dyadic cooperation were examined in a series of 3 experiments. Participants were assigned to 1 of 4 groups: (a) unscripted-implicit incentives, (b) scripted-implicit incentives, (c) unscripted-explicit incentives, and (d) scripted-explicit incentives. Dyads studied a passage and later took recall and sentence completion tests. Cooperation structure and incentive structure had interactive effects on cognitive outcomes. Experiment 2 controlled for possible test order effects in Experiment 1. Rewards influenced the number of items attempted on a sentence completion task, suggesting that reward has a motivational effect. Experiment 3 examined the effects of an initial cooperative experience on subsequent task performance. Results again supported a motivational interpretation of the effects of reward.

A Commentary on Design Research

The call for design research, design-based research, or design experiments arose from the recognition of the complexity of classroom interventions and dissatisfaction with existing methodologies for exploring the outcomes from such interventions. The goal of the proposed design research was to describe how interventions worked and was less about documenting that they worked. The concerns voiced are not new, and the emergence of proposals for alternatives was a natural outgrowth of trends in the field of educational psychology. Advances are only beginning to be made in the articulation of a design research methodology, and some of the criticism and recommendations for progress are described. The articles in this issue provide examples of design research and point to some issues that still require attention. Among these are the need to clarify the nature of design research and the role of context in such research.

Learning from Lectures: Effects of Cooperative Review

Abstract We examined the effects of cooperative and individual review of lecture material on subsequent free-recall performance. College students listened to a prerecorded lecture in one of four experimental conditions: (a) individual notetakers who reviewed their notes individually after the lecture; (b) dyads who took notes during the lecture with the expectation of cooperatively reviewing the material after the lecture; (c) dyads in which one partner listened to the lecture without taking notes and subsequently summarized the information to a partner who took notes during the lecture; and (d) dyads whose members took notes individually without expecting to review cooperatively but who did in fact review cooperatively after the lecture. Students who expected to review individually but did so cooperatively out-performed students who reviewed alone. Dyad partners who did not take notes but cooperatively reviewed performed as well as partners who took notes and individuals who took notes and reviewed indiv...

Cooperative learning and test taking: Transfer of skills

This experiment evaluated the impact of cooperative interactions among students during studying and test taking. Comparisons were made between four groups: cooperative learning/cooperative testing; cooperative learning/individual testing; individual learning/cooperative testing; individual learning/individual testing. All participants were instructed on a learning and test-taking strategy. Cooperative groups applied the strategy in dyads and individual groups applied the strategy in isolation. Repeated measures analyses of free recall tests over two 2500-word passages indicated positive transfer of cooperative test-taking training to individual study and test taking for a quantitative measure of recall. For recall accuracy, cooperative study training led to better performance and transfer.