The cognitive skill of coaching collaboration

We observed eight experienced avionics technicians as they coached collaborating dyads who worked on problems in Sherlock 2, an intelligent tutoring system for avionics. Data analysis focused on: (1) defining the cognitive skill of coaching collaboration, (2) identifying cues that coaches use to detect and diagnose peer interaction impasses, and (3) specifying how coaches remedy these impasses. Coaching collaboration is an extension of the task of mentoring in one-on-one interactions. It involves three levels of diagnosis: diagnosing problems in the task situation, in students' knowledge and problem-solving process, and in peer interactions. One-on-one instructional interactions--e.g., medical rounds consultations between an expert physician and a resident--involve only the first two levels. We describe cues that can signal to a human or automated coach that intervention is necessary and can indicate what the cause of a peer interaction impasse is. During problem solving, the avionics experts tended to focus on giving advice that would keep students on a productive solution path. They seldom addressed problems at the interaction level---e.g., by prompting a student who evidently knew what to do next to help his peer. However, experts and students used the post-practice reflective discussions to more fully address knowledge gaps, misconceptions, and interaction-level problems.