2000 Volume 24 Issue 3 Pages 159-169
Educational practice and research have aroused increasing interest in learning based on a small-group setting. However, much of the literature related to mathematical problem solving in a small-group setting merely reports achievement results. It disregards the study of the process that takes place during small group work to determine how various academic, social, or psychological effects are produced. Therefore, this paper focuses upon the dynamic process of collaborative mathematical problem solving. To analyze the process of collaborative mathematical problem solving, this study develops a rationale for discourse analysis, elaborates the theoretical process-observation framework focusing on the emergent goals perspective, and conducts a case study which was undertaken by one pair of college-age women working on the"painted cube"problem.
