ABSTRACT
Educators could currently be forgiven for feeling very confused about the relevance of peer interaction to teaching and learning in physics. On the one hand, recent pronouncements aimed at education in general might seem to undermine peer interaction as the proper concern of teachers. On the other hand, developments relating to physics itself could be construed as giving peer interaction an unprecedented boost. A clear example is the ‘National Curriculum for Science’ which makes ‘talking in groups’ statutory for numerous school activities in England and Wales. A similar emphasis appears in the Scottish ‘Environmental Studies 5 to 14’, a programme which includes physics, amongst other subjects. In addition, physics teaching is being increasingly supported by expensive artefacts, whose cost necessitates shared (and hence collaborative) usage. The most obvious instance is computer-based work. Computers are becoming commonplace in physics for the simulation of effects, for the control of experiments, and (perhaps unfortunately) for the drilling of ‘facts’, and their usage is very largely with pupils working in groups. As just one of many illustrations, a recent survey by Erica McAteer and Ayal Demissie of Strathclyde University revealed that 93 per cent of computer use in Glasgow schools involves two or more pupils working together.
