{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105908"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105908","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Collaborative problem solving in higher education classrooms: Exploring student interactions, group progress, and the role of the teacher","abstract":"The present study explored the types and quality of the collaborative problem solving interactions of 14 small groups of undergraduate engineering students in four face-to-face classrooms as they solved an authentic engineering task. The study also examined the groups’ progress on the task and the strategies that the teaching and course assistants implemented to orchestrate the groups’ activity in these classrooms. Video data from the four classrooms was collected and analyzed. Findings from the analysis of students’ interactions did not indicate high quality collaborative interactions in groups. Findings also indicated that higher group progress was associated with more collaborative problem solving turns where students were less engaged in mentioning new ideas and rejecting ideas, more engaged in rich explanations and justifications of processes and concepts, and more engaged in monitoring individual understanding or group performance on the task. Possibilities to improve the quality of collaborative interactions in groups were explored and discussed. Findings from the analysis of the teachers’ strategies indicated that the teaching assistants did not implement framing strategies that aim at prompting students’ collaboration at the beginning of the collaborative problem solving activity. They also did not reflect on students’ collaboration at the end of the activity. During the activity, the teachers did not monitor the groups’ activity and were focused on providing the groups with task-related support. Task-related support had negative impact on the quality of students’ interactions when teachers provided students with elaborated answers or problem solving procedures. Task-related support had a positive impact on the quality of students’ interactions when teachers answered students’ clarification questions or probed students’ understanding until they figured out their next step. Not implementing collaboration-related support and implementing task-related support that had negative impact on the quality of students’ interactions may have in part contributed to the low-quality collaborative interactions in the groups which in turn may have negatively influenced group progress. Future directions for supporting teaching and course assistants in orchestrating collaborative problem solving activities in higher education classrooms were discussed.","abstract_html":"The present study explored the types and quality of the collaborative problem solving interactions of 14 small groups of undergraduate engineering students in four face-to-face classrooms as they solved an authentic engineering task. The study also examined the groups’ progress on the task and the strategies that the teaching and course assistants implemented to orchestrate the groups’ activity in these classrooms. Video data from the four classrooms was collected and analyzed. Findings from the analysis of students’ interactions did not indicate high quality collaborative interactions in groups. Findings also indicated that higher group progress was associated with more collaborative problem solving turns where students were less engaged in mentioning new ideas and rejecting ideas, more engaged in rich explanations and justifications of processes and concepts, and more engaged in monitoring individual understanding or group performance on the task. Possibilities to improve the quality of collaborative interactions in groups were explored and discussed. Findings from the analysis of the teachers’ strategies indicated that the teaching assistants did not implement framing strategies that aim at prompting students’ collaboration at the beginning of the collaborative problem solving activity. They also did not reflect on students’ collaboration at the end of the activity. During the activity, the teachers did not monitor the groups’ activity and were focused on providing the groups with task-related support. Task-related support had negative impact on the quality of students’ interactions when teachers provided students with elaborated answers or problem solving procedures. Task-related support had a positive impact on the quality of students’ interactions when teachers answered students’ clarification questions or probed students’ understanding until they figured out their next step. Not implementing collaboration-related support and implementing task-related support that had negative impact on the quality of students’ interactions may have in part contributed to the low-quality collaborative interactions in the groups which in turn may have negatively influenced group progress. Future directions for supporting teaching and course assistants in orchestrating collaborative problem solving activities in higher education classrooms were discussed.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Shehab, Saadeddine S."],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Curriculum and Instruction","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Mercier, Emma","Lindgren, Robb","Hug, Barbara","Krist, Stina","D'Angelo, Cynthia"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-11-26T20:59:33Z","date_published":"2019-11-26T20:59:33Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:45Z","subjects":["Collaborative Problem Solving","Students' Interactions","Group Progress","Teaching Assistants"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2019 Saadeddine Shehab"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105908","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Mercier, Emma","Lindgren, Robb","Hug, Barbara","Krist, Stina","D'Angelo, Cynthia"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Shehab, Saadeddine S."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2019-11-26T20:59:33Z","2021-11-27T10:15:34Z","2019-07-08","2019-08"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Curriculum and Instruction"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Collaborative Problem Solving","Students' Interactions","Group Progress","Teaching Assistants"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2019 Saadeddine Shehab"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105908"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The present study explored the types and quality of the collaborative problem solving interactions of 14 small groups of undergraduate engineering students in four face-to-face classrooms as they solved an authentic engineering task. The study also examined the groups’ progress on the task and the strategies that the teaching and course assistants implemented to orchestrate the groups’ activity in these classrooms. Video data from the four classrooms was collected and analyzed. Findings from the analysis of students’ interactions did not indicate high quality collaborative interactions in groups. Findings also indicated that higher group progress was associated with more collaborative problem solving turns where students were less engaged in mentioning new ideas and rejecting ideas, more engaged in rich explanations and justifications of processes and concepts, and more engaged in monitoring individual understanding or group performance on the task. Possibilities to improve the quality of collaborative interactions in groups were explored and discussed. Findings from the analysis of the teachers’ strategies indicated that the teaching assistants did not implement framing strategies that aim at prompting students’ collaboration at the beginning of the collaborative problem solving activity. They also did not reflect on students’ collaboration at the end of the activity. During the activity, the teachers did not monitor the groups’ activity and were focused on providing the groups with task-related support. Task-related support had negative impact on the quality of students’ interactions when teachers provided students with elaborated answers or problem solving procedures. Task-related support had a positive impact on the quality of students’ interactions when teachers answered students’ clarification questions or probed students’ understanding until they figured out their next step. Not implementing collaboration-related support and implementing task-related support that had negative impact on the quality of students’ interactions may have in part contributed to the low-quality collaborative interactions in the groups which in turn may have negatively influenced group progress. Future directions for supporting teaching and course assistants in orchestrating collaborative problem solving activities in higher education classrooms were discussed.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2021-08-01","The student, Saadeddine Shehab, accepted the attached license on 2019-07-06 at 10:23.","The student, Saadeddine Shehab, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2019-07-06 at 10:34.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2019-07-08 at 15:53.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #14180 on 2019-11-26 at 14:01:39","Made available in DSpace on 2019-11-26T20:59:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 SHEHAB-DISSERTATION-2019.pdf: 1482566 bytes, checksum: d2080ab34875d6e8d3cbf5403c16f153 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4214 bytes, checksum: a42132092ff787e26c171441ec71f847 (MD5) PROQUEST_LICENSE.txt: 4560 bytes, checksum: 09a47f67e2cad1fc671ec7be42d8c9a4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019-07-08","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 113055 Lift date: 2021-11-26T20:59:54Z Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","Limited Restriction Lifted for Item 113055 on 2021-11-27T10:15:34Z."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Collaborative problem solving in higher education classrooms: Exploring student interactions, group progress, and the role of the teacher"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Mercier, Emma","Lindgren, Robb","Hug, Barbara","Krist, Stina","D'Angelo, Cynthia"],"dc:creator":["Shehab, Saadeddine S."],"dc:date":["2019-11-26T20:59:33Z","2021-11-27T10:15:34Z","2019-07-08","2019-08"],"dc:description":["The present study explored the types and quality of the collaborative problem solving interactions of 14 small groups of undergraduate engineering students in four face-to-face classrooms as they solved an authentic engineering task. The study also examined the groups’ progress on the task and the strategies that the teaching and course assistants implemented to orchestrate the groups’ activity in these classrooms. Video data from the four classrooms was collected and analyzed. Findings from the analysis of students’ interactions did not indicate high quality collaborative interactions in groups. Findings also indicated that higher group progress was associated with more collaborative problem solving turns where students were less engaged in mentioning new ideas and rejecting ideas, more engaged in rich explanations and justifications of processes and concepts, and more engaged in monitoring individual understanding or group performance on the task. Possibilities to improve the quality of collaborative interactions in groups were explored and discussed. Findings from the analysis of the teachers’ strategies indicated that the teaching assistants did not implement framing strategies that aim at prompting students’ collaboration at the beginning of the collaborative problem solving activity. They also did not reflect on students’ collaboration at the end of the activity. During the activity, the teachers did not monitor the groups’ activity and were focused on providing the groups with task-related support. Task-related support had negative impact on the quality of students’ interactions when teachers provided students with elaborated answers or problem solving procedures. Task-related support had a positive impact on the quality of students’ interactions when teachers answered students’ clarification questions or probed students’ understanding until they figured out their next step. Not implementing collaboration-related support and implementing task-related support that had negative impact on the quality of students’ interactions may have in part contributed to the low-quality collaborative interactions in the groups which in turn may have negatively influenced group progress. Future directions for supporting teaching and course assistants in orchestrating collaborative problem solving activities in higher education classrooms were discussed.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2021-08-01","The student, Saadeddine Shehab, accepted the attached license on 2019-07-06 at 10:23.","The student, Saadeddine Shehab, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2019-07-06 at 10:34.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2019-07-08 at 15:53.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #14180 on 2019-11-26 at 14:01:39","Made available in DSpace on 2019-11-26T20:59:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 SHEHAB-DISSERTATION-2019.pdf: 1482566 bytes, checksum: d2080ab34875d6e8d3cbf5403c16f153 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4214 bytes, checksum: a42132092ff787e26c171441ec71f847 (MD5) PROQUEST_LICENSE.txt: 4560 bytes, checksum: 09a47f67e2cad1fc671ec7be42d8c9a4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019-07-08","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 113055 Lift date: 2021-11-26T20:59:54Z Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","Limited Restriction Lifted for Item 113055 on 2021-11-27T10:15:34Z."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105908"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2019 Saadeddine Shehab"],"dc:subject":["Collaborative Problem Solving","Students' Interactions","Group Progress","Teaching Assistants"],"dc:title":["Collaborative problem solving in higher education classrooms: Exploring student interactions, group progress, and the role of the teacher"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Curriculum and Instruction"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:45Z"}