Grounding is not Shared Understanding: distinguishing grounding at utterance and knowledge levels

This paper argues that for the study and facilitation of collaborative learning, existing theories of grounding such as that of Clark & Brennan [5] cannot be applied without adjustments. When comparing collaborative learning and conversation, four dimensions can be identified where grounding at a knowledge level differs from the grounding at an utterance level. Firstly, the indirect access and the existence of a range of manifest meaning, poses the need for a notion of ‘groundedness’. Secondly, we propose providing evidence in ‘co-referenced actions’ to be an important process as well as an additional marker to assess grounding. Thirdly, instead of simply repairing misunderstandings after they arise, ‘perspective taking’ becomes a more prominent mechanism. Fourthly, effort into grounding is turned from needing to be minimized, into needing to be ‘optimized’. Since grounding for learning cannot rely on the self-regulative nature as grounding for conversation, implications for the design of collaborative learning tools are proposed, resulting in a collaborative annotation tool for the studying of texts.