When collaborative is not collaborative: Supporting student learning through self-surveillance

Collaborative learning has been widely endorsed in education. This qualitative research examines instances of collaborative learning during mathematics that were seen to be predominantly non-collaborative despite the pedagogical efforts and intentions of the teacher and the task. In an effort to disrupt the non-collaborative learning, small groups of eighth grade students engaged in self-surveillance where they viewed video data of their group's collaborations and then reflected collectively on their observations. A key finding from this research is that self-surveillance disrupted students’ normalized patterns of collaborative learning creating greater opportunities for individual student learning and participation. Implications for student learning and pedagogy will be discussed.

Research highlights▶ Collaborative learning during mathematics was examined in an eighth grade classroom. ▶ Students were observed engaging in predominantly non-collaborative behavior. ▶ Students watched and reflected collectively on video recordings of their collaborative learning. ▶ Only self-surveillance was found to be helpful in facilitating collaboration.