Meaning Making

This special issue focuses on the difficult problem of how observers and researchers can make sense of how collaborating participants develop a shared understanding both of their task and their own participation in it. Or stated in another way, how can we derive meaning from their emergent and situated meaning making? Meaning making has been studied under a variety of names, and can be conceptualized on different levels of abstraction and from a variety of perspectives. The goal is to attempt to tease apart some of these views, while at the same time seeking means to bring them together in order to provide a more fully elaborated picture. This issue comes with downloadable resources containing the brief video segment which all authors analyzed in the preparation of their contributions.

Timothy Koschmann

Volume 27, Number 2, 1999. Contents: T. Koschmann, Editor's Introduction:The Edge of Many Circles: Making Meaning of Meaning Making. Analyses: P.J. Glenn, T. Koschmann, M. Conlee, Theory Presentation and Assessment in a Problem-Based Learning Group. C.H. Frederiksen, Learning to Reason Through Discourse in a Problem-Based Learning Group. A.S. Palincsar, Applying a Sociocultural Lens to the Work of a Transition Community. J.L. Lemke, Typological and Topological Meaning in Diagnostic Discourse. R. Hall, The Organization and Development of Discursive Practices for "Having a Theory." Commentaries: J.L. Green, M. McClelland, What Difference Does the Difference Make? Understanding Difference Across Perspectives. J. Roschelle, Transitioning to Professional Practice: A Deweyan View of Five Analyses of Problem-Based Learning.