Roles in Collaborative Learning

Roles in Collaborative Learning environments (Kumar, V., 1996)
Decomposing Role refers to the job of splitting the given problem into tasks. Each task is a logical sub-unit of the given problem. Eac of the tasks can be further split into a number of goals. The goals are the learning objectives for the students
Defining Role refers to the job of proposing a goal. The goals defined can be traced from the task tate to the goal state.
Critiquing role requires a group member to propose a countering hypothesis to the proposed hypothesis
Convincing Role is the person who is responsible for comparing a number of hypotheses from the group and suporting one of them.
Reviewing role is the job of ensuring that the collaborative interaction leads to constructive learning. The reviewer summarizes the actions taken in the collaborative session for a particular goal
Referencing is the job of providing facts and related materail, whenever requested by a group member.

The number or group size of collaborating peers is significant. Small groups reduce the complexity of deriving inferences. The number of peers is dependent on the requirement of the collaborative learning task.