Conceptual and procedural knowledge construction in computer supported collaborative learning

This paper focuses on learners' knowledge construction in computer supported collaborative learning. It investigates how far individual knowledge (prior knowledge), collaborative knowledge (the quality of collaborative knowledge construction), and instructional support may contribute to the outcomes of learners' knowledge construction. It analyzes predictors for learners' learning outcomes with respect to procedural knowledge (successful application of rules for case-solving) and conceptual knowledge (cued answer of theory concepts) under consideration of learners' knowledge about theory definitions. To find answers to this issue, results of two studies are presented. They show that predicting factors for learners' construction of conceptual knowledge lie mainly in the individual while procedural knowledge benefits of collaborative knowledge construction. Computer supported collaborative learning environments can provide learning experiences which go far further than the pure acquisition of facts. Research in these fields analyzes often how learners improve their knowledge and skills while learning in these environments and focuses thereby on aspects that the environment aims to facilitate (e.g. argumentation, problem-solving skills, and strategies). Questions about how the individuals and the collaboration contribute to the group' s and to the learners' knowledge construction remain often unanswered. Yet, to examine the potentials of computer supported collaborative learning for collaborative knowledge construction, one has to look deeper into the collaboration scenario with respect to individual and collaborative aspects that may contribute to learners knowledge construction. Schwarz et al. (2003), e.g., found in a study about the construction of collective and individual knowledge in argumentation that there were significant differences between individual and collaborative arguments and that individual arguments improved after collaboration. De Jong and Fergusson-Hessler (1996) present a framework to distinguish different kinds of knowledge. They present four different types of knowledge and define situational knowledge as " knowledge about situations as they typically appear in a particular domain " (p.106), conceptual knowledge as " static knowledge about facts, concepts and principles that apply within a domain " (p. 107), procedural knowledge as " actions or manipulations that are valid within a domain " (p.107), and strategic knowledge which " helps students organize their problem-solving process by directing which stages they should go through to reach a solution " (p.109). Learners may work with all of these four knowledge types in the context of a learning environment, but there may be specific gains in particular aspects, e.g. strategic and procedural knowledge in problem-solving environments (Rummel & Spada, 2006). Besides that, de Jong …