Implications for this Study

The literature highlights the need for students to have social and cognitive skills for interaction. While both are acknowledged, the primary focus of this study is the social skills required, such as task management, conflict management, ability to manage competition and a willingness to accept differing viewpoints. These social skills are the focus of the interactions which are critical in the collaborative

62 learning environment. If a topic is not sufficiently complex it may be a barrier to the collaborative process not allowing for socially constructed learning to occur within the group, a key factor which may influence collaborative practice in the classroom alluding to the importance of interaction in the collaborative process. In exploring the challenges associated with TCL, the primary research question for this study, interaction is identified in the literature as one of the four elements important in this learning environment. Interaction which is seen as essential to the collaborative process is both a tension and a barrier, and management of these interactions appears crucial to student engagement and subsequent depth of learning. Student interaction perhaps, is core to the success of the TCL environment, and a need for a deeper understanding of this engagement in process led to this study. Focusing on the interactions of the group under study, recognising the multiple modes of communication both verbal and non-verbal, (Barron, 2003; Jaques, 2000; Norris, 2004) this study aims to illuminate key factors that influence interaction in this environment.

As I argued earlier Cohen (1994) points out that future research should focus on task and interaction, thereby giving practitioners more detailed knowledge on what makes groups productive. In this literature review, I have identified not only task and interaction but also the role of student and tutor in the group setting as the four important elements. The role of the tutor is seen as critical to the process and the tutor’s approach to the collaborative classroom can be a significant barrier, in that it can either enable or disable the TCL process, again suggesting the importance of tutor interaction in encouraging and engaging students to contribute. While the contribution to content by the tutor appears minimal in the TCL environment proposed, it is the tutor’s initial ability to build and develop a relationship with the group that appears to enable the creation of this learning environment. Dillenbourg (1999) reflects that ‘researchers should no longer treat collaboration as a black box, but zoom in the collaborative interactions in order to gain better understanding of the underlying mechanisms’ (pg. 17). Volet et al (2009) concur, arguing that ‘for researchers to identify instances of collaborative

63 learning it is imperative to go beyond a blanket categorisation of all group work interactions as collaborative and co-constructive and to locate specific interactional episodes that fulfil more conceptually grounded criteria’ (pg. 130). Using observed interactions in their entirety should enable me to achieve a holistic view of them, allowing me to identify specific episodes as discussed by Volet (2009). By focusing on interactions through the elements identified in the literature, task, tutor and student, I hope to identify specific factors that influence TCL practices in the learning culture and communities of practice in a particular Irish H.E. undergraduate classroom.

The literature in terms of group composition and group research (Webb, 1989) notes that most of the research linking peer interaction and learning focused on groups of students who had been working together for relatively short periods of time before they were observed, while Barron (2003) comments on the need for research on real students in a live group classroom setting, rather than research- based experimental classrooms, adding that it would add enhance the authenticity of research results in a situated case study domain. In order to gain this insight I felt that the TCL interactions should be observed in action, in ‘a real classroom’, over a 12 week period, keeping the setting as natural as possible for the participants, attempting to gain a richer understanding of the challenges associated with TCL in an Irish HE classroom. Therefore an ethnographic insider case study with observation of the interactions as a primary method of data collection is discussed in the methodology chapter.

In discussing this new TCL environment, I respond to what I see as a disjuncture in the literature which does not explicitly challenge the powerful interplay between learning culture and communities of practice. Implementing and enacting this new TCL learning environment may be overshadowed by both the learning culture of the educational establishment and the communities of practice within it. Here I see learning culture as an overarching presence within which communities

64 of practice exist, while communities of practice are noted for their importance in supporting and developing communities of practitioners who function within this learning culture. These communities of practice encompass both the students and the tutors as partners in enacting new learning environments. Consequently the actions, positions and dispositions of student, classroom and tutor are also acknowledged as important characteristics of both learning culture and TCL. Recognising this partnership and interplay is an important factor in understanding and analysing the TCL environment.

65 Chapter 3 Methodology

3.0 Introduction

In this study I am an interpretive observer of social constructivism in action in an undergraduate classroom. By this I mean, that I observe students co-construct meaning through collaborative interaction with each other. This approach reflects my philosophical perspective and how I view the social world and the ways in which that reality can be investigated; for example Sikes (2004:18) refers to it as ‘where the researcher is coming from’. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the philosophical position that has influenced the design methodology of this study, highlighting the tensions associated with the chosen methods and their possible influences in this specific research domain.

The chapter is structured into three main sections: research design, data collection methods and data analysis techniques. Section one describes the research site, reiterates the research questions and explores my own philosophical positioning. It outlines the chosen research design concluding with insider and ethical issues associated with the research setting. The second section focuses on data collection methods, highlighting the reasoning and use of these methods. Participant observation, videoing and field notes are examined in the research context. The last section of the chapter relates to data analysis, focusing on a qualitative approach to analysis and concludes by acknowledging the limitations of the research. Reliability, validity and rigour are examined from a qualitative perspective.