The success of a group at completing a task was coded. Table 1 describes the four levels of progress towards success it was possible for each group to achieve. The three examples in this section show screen shots from SynergyView and written transcripts from one group’s attempt to solve the Reasoning task. All are taken from one group, Easterburn Red group, an all-girl group in the tables facing forwards room orientation and taught by
David. The first example shows a passage which was taken by the researchers as evidence of
the group working together to read and discuss the clues. The second shows the group using multistep calculations to attempt to solve the problems together. Finally, the third extract shows disagreement about the correct answer, one student talks to the others the reasoning by which she and one of the other girls in the group has arrived at their answer.
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r93 Right get one each David Yes, can you start
r96 The statue is ... I'll just make mine bigger
r94 Shall I read mine first
r96 The statue is in a room whose numbers is lower than fifty.
r95 No we'll take turns
r95 Right
r93 The room in the number where it is hidden is a multiple of five.
r95 So it's lower than fifty
101 r93 And it's a multiple of five
r94 There are a hundred rooms in the grand hotel, that's not very
important is it
r96 Well yeah, cos you could do five times a hundred.
The transcript above shows that the group attempted to read and discuss the clues together as a group; expressing opinions and suggesting strategies in response to what each other reads. The still from the SynergyView videos (Figure XX) shows that the body
language of the group is positive and focused on the multi-touch table as a shared space. The table surface data, the video stream on the far right of the tool, shows that three students are each touching different clues simultaneously. In the framework for progress and success this would be evidence for a group that is making little progress towards completing the task.
The second example shows the group members discussing the clues and their significance, beginning to make calculations based on the clues and combining the information to deduce the answer. Each of the tasks requires the students to combine information from at least three clues to find the right answer to the task.
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r94 The room number where the statue is hidden is not even. So it must be odd.
David Just careful with the corner.
r96 Yeah it's a multiple of five
r96 Five, ten...
r93 The room number does not contain the digit three.
r94 Yeah but one that ends in zero is even
r93 The room number does not contain the digit three, that is a clue (r96)
The students are able to discriminate between the irrelevant clues and relevant ones (as r93 privileges the clue of r93 over r94). They are also combining three pieces of
information; that it does not contain the digit three, that it is not even and that it is a multiple of five. By the framework of progress and success, they have demonstrated evidence that the group is now making some progress toward completing the task.
Finally the answer is arrived at but there is disagreement between two of the group members and one, who understands the correct answer, is obliged to go through their
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reasoning. Reasoning can be explicit in group talk or implied by gesture but there must be some verbal or visual evidence to show that students with the right answer have not simply overheard it from another group but arrived at it themselves.
r96 The room number where the statue is hidden is not... oh we've already done that one
r93 The room number does not contain the digit three.
r95 Sneaky Sydney has stolen a special stone statue
r94 (unintelligible)
r93 (y96) that's an important one the room
r94 It's not
r93 It is
r94 It's not
r94 Because you know it’s in the five times table and three isn't in the five times table
r93 No but it could be thirty five which is in the five times table. Thirty five, add thirty it's in the five times table. So it's not thirty five or thirty.
David Yeah and what else does it say about them. He’s hidden it in a room, in a bedroom, in the Grand Hotel. Yeah
r96 Ah, it's forty-five, forty-five. Because it's between twenty-five and (unintelligible) it's not twenty-five and it's not thirty-five
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r93 It could be forty (r96)
r96 It's a multi- it's eh, it's got the (unintelligible)
r93 Forty's not there
r94 Look at that
r96 Look, what, wait a minute, where is it.
r96 There look, the room number that the statue is hidden in is not even.
r95 It's not even
r96 We know what it is
The group use clues to back up their claims to each other. They eventually agree and arrive at the correct answer to complete the task. At which point they are coded as having been successful.
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