Assessing group learning and shared understanding in technology-mediated interaction

Without shared understanding, hardly any group learning takes place. Though much has been written about the essence of shared understanding, less is known about how to assess the process of reaching shared understanding. Therefore, the study focuses on ways of assessing shared understanding. A conceptual framework is described that makes a distinction between the process of reaching shared understanding and the resulting shared understanding. The conceptual ideas lead to a coding scheme for observing the processes of shared understanding and to the definition of product measures, among others a scale to assess perceived shared understanding. Then an empirical study is presented, in which the model is applied. A major conclusion is that it was hard to find reflective utterances in the protocols although the coding scheme provided for them.