Interaction, gender, and performance on a computer-based problem solving task

Abstract This paper reports a study in which 66 eleven and twelve year old children worked in boy-boy, girl-boy or girl-girl pairs on a novel problem-solving task on a computer. All were post-tested a week later individually, using a slight variant of the same task. Interaction in the pairs was analyzed from videotape in terms of verbally explicit planning, negotiation, etc. These interaction variables were examined in relation to the levels of success attained both as a pair and at individual post-test. Significant though fairly modest levels of correlation were obtained. Analysis also focussed on the issue of gender. The different gender pairings did produce different patterns of interaction (with, for example, marked dominance patterns in the mixed pairs), but the substantial advantage of boys over girls in terms of final performance turned out to be largely independent both of pair type and of the verbal interactional measures used.