ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book introduces the concept of discourse macrostructure, and the diagnostic procedure frame in particular, and shows that the coach orchestrates discourse to fit the frame. It identifies the role of technologies in bringing a history of past inquiry into present learning situations. The book focuses on identifying the kind of community the participants constitute. It analyzes an episode of problem-based learning (PBL) in a medical school is rich with conversation, mediating objects, and layered intentions of the participants. The strand of activity, an episode of PBL in a medical school, is rich with conversation, mediating objects, and layered intentions of the participants. Although each of the experts engages in discourse analysis, their perspectives range widely from Vygotskian to cognitive theories, linguistic to sociotechnical orientations, and concerns both local to PBL and fundamental to the social sciences.
