The Relationship between Collaborative Problem-Solving Skills and Group-to-Individual Learning Transfer in a Game-based Learning Environment

Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is viewed as an essential 21st century skill for the modern workforce. Accordingly, researchers have been investigating how to conceptualize, assess, and develop pedagogical approaches to improve CPS. These efforts require theoretically-grounded and empirically-validated frameworks of CPS which have been emerging over the past decade with various levels of validity data. The present paper focuses on validating the generalized competency model (GCM) of CPS with respect to predicting individual learning outcomes following CPS among triads. The GCM consists of three main facets–constructing shared knowledge, negotiation/coordination, and maintaining team function–mapped to behavioral indicators (i.e., observable evidence). It hypothesizes that scores on all three facets should positively predict CPS outcomes, including group-to-individual learning transfer. We tested this hypothesis in a study where 249 students who comprised 83 triads engaged in collaborative gameplay with the Physics Playground game environment remotely via videoconferencing. We found that the only CPS facet predicting individual physics learning was maintaining team function, after accounting for pretest scores, students’ perceptions of team collaboration, and their perceived physics self-efficacy. This facet was also the only significant predictor of individual learning regardless of how facet scores were computed (i.e., reverse coding of negative indicators, separating the sums of positive and negative indicators, and no reverse coding of negative indicators). Implications for the GCM and other CPS frameworks are discussed.