Exploration of Peer-Facilitator Dynamics in Two Contrasting Groups

Utilizing an integration of social-cognitivist and socio-cultural approaches, this study--comparing the interactive processes among peers and their mentor in two contrasting groups--was designed to explore the reasons why two learning groups, engaged in an inquiry-based learning project with comparatively sustained discussion, produced vastly differing results. Using discourse threads as the unit of analysis, together with the mentor's perceptions of group facilitation, the findings of this study highlighted the effect of group dynamics upon the mentor's facilitation. Group interaction with explicit and decisive discourse will result in a better understanding for the mentor of the group's zones of proximal development (different ZPDs), and will provide greater opportunity for effective group scaffolding.