Like Vera, I have been involved in studying collaborative problem-solving
from a sociocultural perspective for more than 20 years. I agree with Vera
that collaboration involves "complementarity" and "the dynamics of
co-construction". This is discussed in a recent publication (with Jorge
Larreamendy-Joerns) in Cognition and Instruction (1995, vol 13, no. 4). In
that paper we argued that expertise is emergent and socially
constructed--so the idea that there are merely horizontal or vertical
interactions (peer vs. expert-novice) is called into question.
On another topic, I would like to congratulate David for a terrific book
on Situated Cognition (which he edited with James Whitson). I've been
enjoying many of the chapters in it--particularly the ones by Valerie
Walkerdine (much clearer than many of her earlier books, papers) and by
Cobb et al. and the introduction which makes some interesting connections
and contrasts with the introduction in the book I co-edited, Contexts for
Learning (which was more influenced by Jean Lave's work than it might
appear since she was involved in the AERA symposium that was the basis for
the book and was a big influence on the thinking of all three editors).
Ellice Forman
University of Pittsburgh