An analysis of group regulation patterns in collaborative inquiry learning

Collaborative inquiry learning has gained a lot of attentions among educators for improving student learning. However, students still have difficulties in formulating testable hypotheses, designing conclusive experiments and attending compatible data. The formation of cognitive strategies is an internal process that may be concealed in individuals due to the concurrently cooperation of collaborative inquiry learning. This study attempted to explore the link between awareness of cognitive strategies and peer interactions in collaborative inquiry activity. By gathering the data from 56 college students, who involved experimental physics course as 17 groups, this study utilized handheld devices as an observational tool for peer interactions in a collaborative inquiry activity. The results show the awareness of cognitive strategies which distributed among group members affects peer interaction significantly. This finding suggest that designer of learning environment should consider team members about the importance of the internal process of individuals in collaborative work. In addition, asynchronous awareness which was concealed first then became visible, in an activity could inform more participation and accountability for collaboration. Furthermore, we proposed four peer cooperation models that could provide teachers and designers to configure groups to attain favorable interaction patterns.