Collaboration as constructive interaction and the jigsaw method as its enhancer

This position paper introduces the theory of “constructive interaction” (Miyake, 1986), claiming that differences between members make a conversational interaction constructive. From this theory, the quality of collaboration depends on how often constructive interactions take place among members and to what degree each member deepens her or his own understanding through the interactions. This divergence, individual oriented theory is contrasting to the convergence, group oriented theory (Roschelle, 1992). I will explain that the former is suitable in this knowledge creating society as well as beneficial to clarify fundamental mechanisms of collaboration with some empirical data. In addition, in order to show the benefits of the theory, I compared jigsawtype collaboration with normal-type one in cognitive science education. As a result, the former outperformed the latter, indicating that the legitimization of differences could promote constructive interactions. 1 Collaboration in the knowledge society In this knowledge creating society, innovation and creation should be the heart of our knowledge works (ATC21S, 2010). We should take care of not only how to solve present problems in routine ways, but also to identify and solve future problems in creative ways. Aims of the society also change from how to achieve pre-defined goals quickly to how to ―go beyond‖ or surpass (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1993) them deliberately. Collaboration can help this, given that we have adequate theories of collaboration and designs of collaborative environments for this ―surpassing ourselves‖ society. We need theories of collaboration which