ABSTRACT

Modeling tasks have as a goal for a student to construct an explicit and runnable model of a domain. To obtain the data needed to construct the model, experimentation may be required. Modeling tasks carried out in collaboration seem to require communication and negotiation at the conceptual level (making explicit and elaborating concepts used), the level of problem solving (goal setting, planning, search for information, steps to take, partial solutions to evaluate), and the level of the collaboration itself (regulation and coordination). In this framework, partners build models of one another, because they have to construct and negotiate a shared task-representation (Erkens & Andriessen, 1994). This is a problem as well as an opportunity for leaming.