The role of grounding in collaborative learning tasks

Collaborative learning tasks involve interaction between multiple participants, who thus need to maintain some degree of mutual understanding. The process by which this is accomplished is termed grounding . The way in which collaboration, grounding and learning take place is largely determined by the task, the situation and the tools available. This paper discusses relations between grounding, collaboration and learning, drawing on research from two main areas: the Language Sciences and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory ("CHAT"). We build a unifying perspective of mutual understanding mediated by material and semiotic tools that can be used for analysis as well as for design of collaborative learning tasks, especially those that are carried out via computermediated communication. We illustrate the perspective with reference to a particular computermediated collaborative learning situation in the domain of physics.

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