| Summary: | Scientific evidence has proved that social situations are an enriching context for learning, because the acquisition of new knowledge implies active participation of the learner. Structuring an efficient collaborative situation is challenging and different factors can affect the quality of outcomes. The social context itself is not a guarantee of learning. Experts have deeply explored the collaborative learning approach and they have identified a concept crucial for effective collaboration, namely the process of grounding. When members of a group attempt to perform a task together, a shared understanding of concepts needs to be established and maintained. This has been recognized as a key process on which, consequently, new knowledge can be constructed. Exploring the dynamics that shape collaboration in an authentic classroom setting and investigating the process of common ground construction among children is fundamental to improve classrooms practices. The aim of the research is to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of collaborative learning, through the lenses of interactions and grounding. The theoretical part of this study explores the fundaments of collaborative learning and the phenomenon of common ground. The empirical part aims at exploring an authentic classroom situation, in which students were asked to perform tasks of different nature jointly. The study was conducted in an elementary school located in the Northern Finland and the participants were eleven 4th graders. The investigation was held during 6 English language lessons that were entirely video recorded. Video observations are the main source of information of this study. The data analysis is conducted qualitatively and a coding frame for interactions is constructed according to the directions of qualitative content analysis. The results are presented in the form of descriptive summaries of the collaborative dynamics, tables of frequencies of interactions and examples of verbal exchanges occurred. Interpretation of group mechanisms ...
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