• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.117-133
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• 2022

Examining ways to interact with students in small groups is an important topic for researchers to understand. Existing studies pertaining to the topic have not shed light on knowing why teachers interact with students in small groups the way they do. Given that teacher identity shapes teaching practices, this study explores how teacher identity shapes teachers' interaction with students in small groups. Working with two beginning teachers, I conducted four interviews to collect the data related to reasons behind their interactions with students in small groups in the interview. I analyzed the interview transcripts using a thematic analysis. I found that one teacher's teacher identity was related to her personal experiences as a child and a learner and another teacher's teacher identity was related to her view of teachers' roles as a teacher. I provide discussion and implications of this study.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.323-337
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• 2020

To achieve effective learning, knowledge must be shared and developed through interaction with peer learners. Therefore, science education emphasizes small group inquiry activities that solves tasks through the interaction of members. The effect of small group inquiry activities depends on how to compose small groups. The way in which a group is composed is a very important factor for improving interaction. In particular, it has been reported that the gender of peer is a very important factor in the interaction between students in the composition of small groups. Meanwhile, studies are being conducted on the types and stability of verbal interactions in small group inquiry activities using social network analysis. The purpose of this study is to analyze the types and stability of verbal interaction types and stability according to gender-grouping in elementary school students' small group activities using social network analysis. To this end, 60 5th graders in elementary school were conducted with different gender in the composition of the group of male, female and mixed-gender students. The study found that the composition of a group by gender had little impact on the type or stability of verbal interaction. However, the frequency of verbal interactions was higher in mixed-gender groups than in other groups. Through this process, the gender-grouping in elementary school students' small group activities suggests a mixed-gender group.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.229-254
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• 2021

Students' participation in epistemic practices, which are related to knowledge construction on the part of students, is becoming a crucial part of learning (Goizueta, 2019). Research on epistemic practices in science education draws attention to teachers' support of students to engage in epistemic practices in mathematics instruction. The research highlights a need for incorporating epistemic goals, along with conceptual and social goals, into instruction to promote students' epistemic practices. In this paper, I investigate how teachers interact with students to integrate epistemic goals. I examined 24 interaction excerpts that I identified from six interview transcripts of two beginning teachers' mathematics instruction. Each excerpt was related to the teachers' talk about their specific interaction(s) in a small group. I explored how each teacher's discursive moves and goals were conceptual, social, and epistemic-related as they intervened in small groups. I found that both teachers used conceptual, social, and epistemic discursive move but their discursive moves were related only to social and social goals. This paper suggests supporting teachers to develop epistemic goals in mathematics instruction, particularly in relation to small groups.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.216-233
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to identify the aspects of elementary school students' interactions shown conceptual changes in collaborative scientific argumentation. Fifty sixth graders of an elementary school in Jeonju were selected for this study. Ten small groups consisting of five students each were organized evenly with considerations of their gender, science achievement, scientific discussion experience and degree of communication apprehension. 'Food web and Ecosystem' and 'Change of Moon shape' were selected as the proper topics of collaborative scientific argumentation in terms of difficulty to be understanded by the $6^{th}$ graders. The small group's dialogue was recorded. The students' activity sheets, field note and interviews of the participants were collected. Based on the collected data, we analyzed the aspect of small groups' interaction shown conceptual change of each student. The result of this study was as follows: The interaction aspects of the small group of students who showed conceptual changes in the collaborative scientific discussion have a tendency of showing their discussion responses, explanation-opposition discourse, the use of rigorous criteria, their collaborative attitude and participation.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.167-182
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• 2020

The active participation and active interaction of learners in small group science inquiry activities are the main factors that determine the effectiveness of science learning. Roles can be assigned to members of a small group to facilitate interaction between members within the small group. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of role assignment on the types and patterns of verbal interactions in middle school students' small group science inquiry activities. For this, 172 students from middle schools located in metropolitan cities were surveyed. We analyzed 18 small groups with assigned roles and 15 small groups without assigned roles. The change in verbal interaction type in small group science inquiry activity according to role assignment was largely divided into alienation and participation. In the case of small groups with assigned roles, the participation type occupied a higher proportion than the alienation type. The change in verbal interaction patterns did not show much significant differences when the role was assigned in terms of cognitive and affective. Based on this, further research is needed on how role assignment affects verbal interactions depending on the type of scientific inquiry and the stage of inquiry. In addition, further research on the composition of small groups and role assignment is required.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.124-139
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to understand the influence of the inclusive leader on group interactions in scientific inquiry experiments emphasizing group interactions. For this purpose, the students' verbal interaction patterns in groups with inclusive leaders were compared with those of groups with normal leaders and the inclusive leaders' influence on the progress of group interactions was analyzed extensively. This study focused on interactions of four small groups of seventh graders, with two having inclusive leaders and two having normal leaders. Students were involved in seven science classes for three weeks and students' interactions in each class were observed and recorded using video/audio. The data recorded was transcribed. Analysis of verbal interaction patterns showed that the small group with the inclusive leader had a more positive atmosphere and highly structured interactions. Results of the study showed that interactions of small groups with inclusive leaders were sustained for longer times, since the inclusive leaders initiated and expanded interactions. The inclusive leaders behaved with consideration of the feelings of other members in sharing their roles or facing critical situations. In addition, although they sometimes gave pressured other members to get them to participate, the pressure did not discourage their interaction as opposed to the emotional pressure that normal leaders would exert. The inclusive leaders were pleased with small-group interactions and activities. They considered the feelings of the other members and respected others' opinions. Such characteristics of inclusive leaders preserved a positive atmosphere and produced more high-level interactions. Thus, the groups that inclusive leaders had influenced had a pleasant and significant learning experience. Educational implications of characteristics of the inclusive leader and the organization of groupings were drawn.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.909-927
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• 2009

Inquiry became an essential methodology in science education. Recently, argumentation becomes more important in inquiry, but inquiry-based teaching in school science would not provide enough opportunities for students to have voluntary and active interactions during inquiry activities. Informal science learning can be an alternative for authentic inquiry. Accordingly, this study aims to find interaction patterns in dialogic inquiry of junior high school students in small groups in the natural history gallery. Inquiry elements and interaction patterns are analyzed with 42 dialogues of 13 small groups. As a result, seven interaction patterns are identified. First, five major interaction patterns were drawn as follows; Sharing questions, asking questions and simple response, asking questions and simple explanation, asking questions-simple explanation-(collecting data)-data based explanation, and asking questions-collecting data-data based explanation. Second, pattern 2, 'asking questions and simple response', is subdivided into three categories; passive and/or evasive response, inaccurate response, and repeated patterns of asking questions-simple response. The results of the study provide different patterns of dialogic interactions in a small group inquiry in informal contexts from formal contexts, and provide foundations to understand middle school students' interactive dialogues of inquiry occurred in the natural history gallery.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.372-387
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• 2012

This study aims to identify unique small group norms and their influence on the process of constructing a scientific model. We developed instructional materials for the construction of a model of blood flow in the heart and conducted research on eighth-grade students from one middle school. We randomly selected 10 small groups, and videotaped and recorded their dialogues and behaviors. The data was categorized according to the types of interaction and then analyzed to investigate the characteristics of group norms and models in one or two representative groups for each type. The results show that the types of interaction, the quality of the group models, and the group norms were different in each group. Even though one teacher guided students through the same task in the inquiry context, each group revealed different patterns of discourse and behavior, which were based on norms of cognitive responsibility, the need for justification, participation, and membership. With the exception of one group, there was little cognitive responsibility and justification for students' opinions. Ultimately, these norms influenced the model construction of small groups. A group that forms norms to encourage the active participation and justify members' opinions with cognitive responsibility was encouraged to do inferential thinking and construct a group model close to the target model. This study has instructional implications for the establishment of a classroom environment that facilitates learning through small group activities.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.279-288
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• 2001

In this study, interaction patterns in peer small-group discussions with cognitive conflict strategy (CCS) and those with social consensus strategy (SCS) were compared. Verbal interactions of four small groups (16 students) in learning science concepts were analyzed at the levels of turns, interaction units, and episodes. The frequencies of total turns and knowledge construction turns per discussion for the SCS group were higher than those for the CCS group. Comparing and evaluating hypotheses and discussion worksheets provided were especially effective in increasing metacognitive utterances of the SCS group students. The frequencies of 'most students participating mode', 'elaborative interaction mode', and 'exploratory episode' for the SCS group were higher than those for the CCS group. These suggested that more students in the SCS group participated in small-group discussions and their discussions were more interactive and elaborative. The interactions and episodes of the SCS group were also superior in quality to those of the CCS group.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.333-342
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• 2015

This study analyzes the verbal interaction patterns used in a social network activity analysis that appeared in a science inquiry activity of 31 small groups of science-gifted students consisting of 5 members each. The results of this study are as follows: The interaction patterns showed eight types. The most prevalent interaction pattern, type 1, is triangle-shaped, interacting with 3 members out of 5 without a central member. Type 2 is wye form, interacting with 4 members and with one alienated member. Type 3 is diamond-shaped, interacting with 4 members. Type 4 is ray form, interacting with 5 around a central member. Type 5 has an alienated member and interacts with 4 members around the central member. Type 6 is triangle-branched, 4 members linked to the central member. Type 7 is wye form linked all around the central member. Type 8 is wye form with a more complex link than type 7. These can be classified in two. One is the participation-type where the rest of the 4 members are linked to the central member. The other is the alienation-type where a member/members is/are alienated without a central member. The participation-type appeared in 9 groups (29%), type 4, type 6, type 7, and type 8. The alienation-type showed in 22 groups (71%), type 1, type 2, type 3, and type 5. On the basis of this study, we propose that the best number of members in a group is three. It helps prevent a free-riding effect or isolation of members. Also, we deem it more fruitful if there is a member playing a central role in a group.