Research on Individual Authority and Group Authority Relations in Collaborative Problem Solving in Middle School Mathematics

In collaborative problem solving mathematical learning environments, students often use a range of mathematical and non-mathematical forms of language to gain authority. Previous research on student participation defined individual and group authority relations in collaborative mathematical problem solving and their coding. A video text of six groups of Grade 7 middle school students working in groups of four on the task “Xiao Ming’s Apartment” was studied. The study analysed individual authority and group authority relations in high- and low-scoring groups. The findings were drawn from the rise and fall of individual authority, the proposal negotiation units (authority nodes) of group authority relations, and the discourse coverage of students’ different authority relations. It was found that differences in individual authority between high- and low-scoring groups affected how students distributed and shifted group authority relations in collaborative problem solving in middle school mathematics.