From Co-Construction to Takeovers: Science Talk in a Group of Four Girls

The goal of this article is to add to our knowledge of what kinds of interaction take place within small groups. To that end the nature of the interaction among four girls in a small group science activity is analyzed with respect to the other work on both girls' talk and on small group interactions. It is shown that three participants obtained very different access to this conversation from their usual access to whole class lessons. It is further shown that the student whose participation in the small group differed most from that of the others had a different orientation to the task and indicated she was playing by different conversational rules. Co-construction is then explored as a major means of interaction for the other three participants, but the question posed is to what extent this form is necessarily collaborative. The findings suggest that future research look beyond participation rates as measures of status and look more deeply into the impact of talk that is in form cooperative.