Title

Collaborative programming in PERL: A case study of learning in groups described from an ecological psychology perspective

Date of Completion

January 2001

Keywords

Education, Educational Psychology|Psychology, Cognitive

Degree

Ph.D.

Abstract

Ecological psychology typically examines one agent at a time, and its interaction with the environment. This study examined collectives , groups of students in a collaborative learning environment, and determined that the interaction of collectives and their environment was an appropriate level of ecological analysis. Further, the modeling strategy established for the ecological interpretation of collectives can provide insight into a variety of group-based learning methodologies. ^ The modeling strategy and research methodology based on the Ecological analysis of group-activity described herein can provide a standardization of the descriptors used to describe group interactions. It may be the case that this variety of group-process models is based on the same fundamental process with contextual differences arising from subtle variations of degrees of freedom. ^ The multi-agent collective may provide a new method for the ecological study of single agent systems. This research concluded that the properties shared between collectives and singular agents allow for their mutual substitutability. Given this, the collective can provide opportunities to study synonymous processes in collectives that remain hidden within singular agents. ^

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