Abstract

Recent research has established a number of characteristics of successful collaborative groupwork. These include the presence of socially shared regulation, (Hadwin & Oshige (2011); Iiskala et al., 2011), the presence of ëexploratory talkí aimed at co-constructing shared understanding (Mercer & Littleton, 2007), regulatory talk which is concerned with the fundamental goals of the task (Grau & Whitebread, 2012), and a balanced pattern during the task of relative contributions or ëpositionsí adopted by group members (van Langenhove & Harre, 1999). This paper reports an analysis of these various group dynamics and processes within a study of the narrative skills of 108 1st, 3rd and 5th grade students in UK primary classrooms. In previous studies, the impact of playful group problem-solving activities (Whitebread et al., 2007), and a ëguided playí approach (Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, Berk & Singer, 2009) on language and metacognitive skills, which underpin narrative abilities, has been clearly established. The participants in the present study worked in mixed ability groups of three and engaged, over one academic year, in 12 episodes of pretence and constructional play involving LEGO©, used to stimulate the generation of different genres of writing. In addition to the above characteristics of group processes, the verbal and non-verbal behaviours evidenced during these playful group tasks were analysed in relation to their playfulness, metacognitive strategies and generation of creative ideas, and to individual childrenís progress in metacognitive abilities, creativity and narrative skills.