Children's talk in cooperative groups

Abstract Whilst cooperative group learning using computers undoubtedly encourages students' verbal interactions, few studies have focused upon the nature of these interactions. Many researchers have suggested there is a need to know how students interact with each other particularly in relation to group structures, tasks and software types. This study was undertaken to investigate the verbal interactions of students (about 10-years old) when working in cooperative groups structured on ability (either homogeneous and heterogeneous) using simulation and word processing software. It was found that the largest element of students' talk when working in cooperative groups of either structure was cognitively oriented; that students situated in homogeneous groups are likely to produce more socially oriented talk than those in heterogeneous groups; that students working with word processing rather than simulation software are likely to produce more socially oriented and off-task talk; and those using simulation software are more likely to use talk indicative of higher-order cognitive processing. In general, this study found that task, software and to a lesser extent, group structure, influenced the interactions of students working in cooperative groups with CAL.