Social interactions in collaborative problem-solving in a teaching experiment involving a micro-chip

We investigated collaborative problem solving in a teaching experiment organized for 32 university sophomores in a computing environment. The participating teacher was trained by us and students were supplied with kits, interfaces and computers equipped with programming tools for a 8051 micro-chip. Student activities were video-recorded and the analysis proceeded through writing video-protocols, editing into episodes and then classification into categories. The data show that typical learning processes were collaborative (51% of all episodes). Students worked quite independently of the teacher, as they learned to use the programming tool autonomously in their projects. It appears, however, that more teacher support, such as introducing handbooks, planning tools and advanced programming skills, would have been an advantage, and non-group interactions would provide more help in the problem-solving process. Some ideas for the further development of study procedures in modern learning environments are discussed.