(^) 47. JC No, we're going to have to work
backwards. (mumbles) C Relates to the problem-solving strategy. Students were taught to work backwards from the target
AW Our approach is conservation of variable.
energy? MC This clarifies the previous claims by relating it to the “approach” step of the strategy. Although
said in question form, it is actually a statement.
JC Yeah. 50. AW OK. Ak Ak Ak = Acknowledgment.
RS Uh. huh. 52. JC Use conservation of energy. Sm Ak (^) JC neatly summarizes the entire
discussion.
Table 3-27. Group 5A, Episodes 7&8, lines 41-52.
In all three of these examples, students less involved in making claims
nonetheless make important contributions. They are reluctant, for whatever reason, to
make initial Claims and defer that part of the cooperative effort to other students. Their
contribution to the group’s solution is in the form of support for ideas, contribution of
data (Grounds), skeptical questioning, or encouragement. This is an important finding in
this study because it means that the students are indeed involved in co-constructing the
solution, and the solution is not the work a single individual in the group. That is, all
students in a cooperative problem-solving group contribute in some manner to solution of
the problem.
Role of a Dominant Student
If there is a dominant student in the group, that person tends to make most of the
claims, either original or Modified and Alternate. Groups 2D, 5A, and 5C can be
classified as having a dominant student where one person made more than 60% of the
total claims. It is important to note that this definition of dominance is in terms of the
number of claims a student makes within the group. Another type of dominance I