Primary school children's collaboration: Task presentation and gender issues

This paper explores the specific characteristics of social interaction during an English language based task in the primary classroom, and the mediational role of the computer in structuring collaboration when compared to a non-computer mode of task presentation. 120 seven and nine year old boys and girls completed a computer and non-computer task, involving the joint resolution of similar language based problems, working in equal ability boy-boy, girl-girl or boy-girl partnerships. Each session was videotaped and the social interaction of the pairs of children categorised. All children were found to offer significantly more suggestions and engage more frequently in reciprocated eye contact when the task was presented as a computer activity. During the non-computer activity task children employed significantly more descriptions, explanations and declaratives. The mediational role of the computer was also observed in relation to gender issues. When collaboration broke down in mixed gender pairs, boys used specific dominating styles of interaction in the computer task (stating intentions, issuing instructions and rejecting partner's ideas without justification), whereas girls demonstrated the same dominating styles when collaboration broke down during the non-computer task. The findings support and further extend the results of previous research, and their implications are discussed in relation to collaborative work with computers in the primary classroom.