Collaborative Construction of Task Activity: Coordinating Multiple Resources in a High School Physics Lab

Abstract

This article documents the collaborative coordination of multiple resources-talk, gesture, and writing-as represented in the interaction among 3 high school seniors working on a physics laboratory task. Through the close analysis of the moment-to-moment construction of task, this study draws attention to complex yet taken-for-granted practices that are integral to thinking and acting in the ubiquitous context of laboratory activities. In line with other research on situated action, it is critical to our understanding of jointly implemented activities that we look closely at their forms on particular occasions. These students display forms of competence that can be manifested only in interaction. From this perspective, learning activities involve not only making conceptual connections but also, and crucially, making interactional connections, knowing how to collaboratively construct a task.