Transactivity and Knowledge Co-Construction in Collaborative Problem Solving

Successfully engaging in collaborative problem solving is an essential constituent of professional and general life skills. Collaborative problem solving is also used to engage learners in collaborative processes relevant to the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Here, learners co-construct knowledge by transactively building on each other's contributions. In this symposium, we explore the factors leading to successful engagement in collaborative problem solving. The conceptualization of transactivity in collaborative problem solving is refined balancing the merits of both sharing new knowledge and referring to others' contributions. Empirical studies in this symposium show that it is important for successful collaborative problem solving that individuals elicit and share information with their learning partners who should evenly participate. Further, engaging in relevant collaborative processes can be facilitated by scaffolds such as sentence openers facilitating learners referring to each other.