Abstract:

The main goal of this research is to deepen the psychoeducational study of computer-supported collaborative learning during the searching and elaboration of information in secondary education. Specifically we try to identify the processes influencing the learning results for each kind of task and to describe the process leading to the best learning results for each task.

To reach these goals, a quasi-experimental study has been conducted and the learning process and results of forty-nine student pairs of secondary fourth grade from two different educational centres have been analyzed. Data from the resolution of three learning tasks of increasing complexity have been collected, from the point of view of the informational competence: a task concerning information selection, a task concerning establishing conceptual relations, and a task concerning decoding information. Each type of task is characterized by different interrelationships between the collaborative learning activity and the learning outcomes.

The analysis of the educational interactions within student pairs, as well as the actions they perform, has been conducted taking into account eight parameters: search range, hypertext navigation, reading documents, information elaboration, knowledge shared construction, group interaction structure, learning regulation, and emotional atmosphere. The learning results have been analyzed in terms of group product quality.

The results obtained from the statistical analysis of the data demonstrate that the importance of the process is positively correlated with the complexity of the task. Likewise we can conclude that the relationship between the best learning results and the processes involved vary according to the type of task required.

Keywords:

Collaborative learning, informational competence, learning outcomes.