Abstracts - Earli

provide a means of illuminating what Kinti and Hayward (2006) describe as internal coordinationproblems (between project participants) as well as potentially reducing the likelihood and severityof external coordination problems arising in the problem-space between education researchers andthe software developers aiming to support and enhance their work.A mixed methods design for a training on conversational coherence in video-conferencesKarin Schweizer, Technical University of Braunschweig, GermanyManuela Paechter, University of Graz, AustriaFrom former investigations (Schweizer, Paechter, & Weidenmann, 2003) it is known thatconversational coherence in video conferences is lower than in face-to-face settings. It is alsoknown that there are several coordination mechanisms that enable group members to maintainconversational coherence in face-to-face settings which are restricted in video-conferences.Therefore, in the present study a training for the participants of desktop video conferences wasdeveloped. The experimental design comprised four conditions. We trained groups of threeparticipants in (a) conversational coherence, (b) problem solving, (c) conversational coherence andproblem solving or (d) we skipped the training at all (= control group) (in the present paper,however, the focus lies on the coherence training). The results show a relationship between thetype of training and the enhancement of conversational coherence. The coherence coefficient washigher for the coherence training group than for the control group. Other training conditions showdifferent results. Qualitative data further show that special patterns do develop with special typesof training. The results yield useful implications for the design of group work in online courses.They give recommendations how to support knowledge communication.M 331 August 2007 14:35 - 15:55Room: 0.89 JedlikPaper SessionAssessment methodsChair:Kari Smith, University of Bergen, NorwayDynamic assessment of proportional reasoning: Human vs. computer-based mediationAlex Kozulin, ICELP, IsraelDanielle Jackobson-Sapiens, Hebrew University, IsraelThe goal of this paper is to explore students’ proportional reasoning under conditions of humanmediation as compared to computer-based mediation. The target of our dynamic assessment –proportional reasoning – is directly linked to mathematical problem solving and as such bridgesbetween cognitive and instructional areas. Fifty three seventh grade male students (age 13-14)participated in the study. They were pre-and post-tested using a modified version of Harel et al(1992) Blocks task. In this task the students are shown two pairs of blocks (A,B and C,D), allbricks in blocks A and C weigh the same and all the bricks in B and D also weigh the same. Thestudents are informed about the weight relation between blocks A and B and are asked to inferabout the weight relation between blocks C and D. Students’ answers were ranked from reasoningLevel 0 ("wild guess’) to Level 6 (fully proportional explanation). The first group of students– 689 –