Abstract
Students are often encouraged to write down ideas generated while brainstorming. However, the act of "writing" sometimes leads to unproductive discussions and/or insufficient outcomes. In this study, we analyzed the students' interactions during a brainstorming task in order to figure out how the act of "writing" influences the outcomes. The following problematic behaviors attributed to "writing" were identified: 1) they focused on "how" rather than "what" to write, 2) they tended to select ideas that are easier to write down in Japanese, and 3) they failed to attend to some suggestions which might have potential for expanding ideas.
