Material Mediation:  Tools and Representations Supporting Collaborative Problem‐Solving Discourse

This study investigates how a variety of resources mediated collaborative problem solving for a group of preservice teachers. The participants in this study completed mathematical, combinatorial tasks and then watched a video of a sixth grader as he exhibited sophisticated reasoning to recognize the isomorphic structure of these problems. The preservice teachers used a variety of material tools to solve the same problem, construct explanations of the learning processes that the sixth grader engaged in, and pose further questions about the problem to clarify their solutions. The results of this study suggest that simple material tools helped to motivate and mediate the participants’ collaborative problem-solving discourse. Since Vygotsky (1978) described the importance of mediation to situated learning, researchers have been examining the interplay among agents, tools, and activities (Cole, 1996; Engeström, 1999). Because tools play such an important role in sociocultural theories of learning, our research question focuses on how tools mediate collaborative learning in a higher educatio