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Introduction
Collaborative learning is on the increase at all levels of education. In the university context, it is assumed that participation in group learning activities leads to the development of teamwork skills but most importantly to a better understanding of the subject matter through engagement in collaborative learning processes. To date, however, few studies have examined the assumption that students do engage in productive collaborative learning. The present study addresses this gap by examining what students actually do when working together on a group assignment. More specifically, the study investigates the nature of students’ content-related interactions during student-led face-to-face meetings for a group assignment. It also aims to determine the extent to which observed patterns of productive collaborative learning are related to students’ self-reported experiences and academic performance. Situative and sociocognitive perspectives are combined to frame a dual focus on patterns of engagement in collaborative learning processes at the group level, as well as individuals’ experiences and appraisals of their collaborative learning activity within their group.
Group work and collaborative learning are not synonymous
Alongside universities’ increasing emphasis on group work, there is a growing body of theoretical and empirical literature on ‘collaborative learning’. Although this term has often been conflated with group work in general, the collaborative learning literature (Dillenbourg 1999; Roschelle and Teasley 1995) suggests that group work does not necessarily entail students learning collaboratively. A basic pre-requisite for collaborative learning is that students engage with the substance of the learning task (i.e. the content to be understood or the problem to be solved) together. By this criterion, students working individually on different sections of a group assignment and then ‘sticking’ them together would not be said to have learned collaboratively. Though group members would still interact, their interactions would not focus on content but on managing the process of determining, allocating and then combining the chunks of work to be completed individually. This distinction between collaborative learning and task management (as discussed by Dillenbourg 1999) reflects the view that group assignments are not merely an opportunity for students to gain skills and experience in working with others. They also allow students to process information at a deeper level via the co-construction of knowledge with other members of the group, which can...