Abstract
The purpose of this study is to analyze the way students enhance their learning activities by interacting with each other in the process of collaborative discovery learning. Ten pairs of high school students participated in learning the computer microworld discovery materials designed for this study, and their verbal protocols were then analyzed.
In this paper, we propose the LUTE (Link-UniT-Element) model. The LUTE model is composed of three levels: the third level consists of dialogue elements (level III); the second of conceptual units (level II); and the first of links between the two units (level I). The conceptual units involve three types of data (D), three types of model (M), and knowledge (K).
Analysis based on the LUTE model shows that collaborative learning correlated with the following factors: 1) the extent to which an inactive learner participated in learning processes; 2) the number of times an active learner questioned and objected to an inactive learner during the dialogues; 3) the total number of links connecting the two units; 4) the appearance of links signifying hypothesis formation and verification; and 5) the proposals of strategical units.
The factors mentioned above are discussed from the viewpoint of the correlation of the three levels. Our analysis leads us to conclude that 1) learning processes were in progress in the correlation of the three levels; 2) an active learner developed his/her learning processes autonomically, while the activity of an inactive learner depended on an active learner; and 3) proposing strategical units activated the interaction between the two learners.
