Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Talking Through The Problems: A Study Of Discourse In Peer-Led Small Groups, Michelle D. Repice, R. Keith Sawyer, Mark C. Hogrebe, Patrick L. Brown, Sarah Luesse, Daniel J. Gealy, Regina F. Frey

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Increasingly, studies are investigating the factors that influence student discourse in science courses, and specifically the mechanisms and discourse processes within small groups, to better understand the learning that takes place as students work together. This paper contributes to a growing body of research by analyzing how students engage in conversation and work together to solve problems in a peer-led small-group setting. This qualitative study evaluates video of Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) sessions in general chemistry, with attention to both the activity structures and the function of discourse as students undertook different types of problems across one semester. Our findings …