Group 6 Dynamics cont.: "You can't just choose numbers"

The context for this video is that the groups were asked to consider 4 scenarios for the process of lifting and lowering a bowling ball at constant speed and Group 6 spent a lot of time using arbitrary numbers for showing that each scenario was possible. This is the conversation that happened right after Lane declared a break.

Nicole: ...but the question was is it possible, like is there a way that you could make that work.

Sam: Sure

Nicole: and we made 2, 3, and 4 work, but not number 1 and I think we just proved that number 1 doesn't work, which is the one that you (giggles)

Sam: I'm still saying number 1 is the case - and if we did - an experiement that involved measuring of all those, it'd come out right.

Kerry: see, that's what I kind of want to do, be like, alright, let's just, I want to measure it, I want to know

Nicole: oh yeah, I do too.

Sam: I've been thinking about setting up an experiment with an electric motor that would prove it.

Nicole: I guess I've just been trying to - not take what I think {points to head} and try and prove it {hands toward table}, but instead say, are any of them possible {sweeps hands out} and then which one's, I guess, well, I don't know what you do after that, is it, which one's the most probable, or - but this works.

Sam: it doesn't work

Kerry: So, I keep feeling like my mind, like my mind is split, like I keep feeling like ok

Nicole: it works with numbers, it doesn't necessarily have to work in real life.

Sam: it works with arbitrary numbers

Nicole: {rolls eyes} so

Sam: {pointing to numbers on the board} the only numbers that actually mean anything are 5, 10, 5 cause you can make that happen. You can set it up that way and that number's zero - and kinetic energy, those can be the same too, but these numbers and these two numbers have to be measured.

Nicole: So, I think, I think the fact that I can do this with easy numbers doesn't preclude there being an answer where the numbers aren't pretty.

Sam: but, that's, that can't happen. These have to be the same.

Kerry: Why?

Nicole: Ok

Sam: Cause you do the same amount of work up and down.

Nicole: And I agree and that why I say that {points toward whiteboard in front}

Sam: the work for your body is the exact same up and down and that's why

Nicole: that's why I say number four is right

Sam: but number 4, you've done the exact same thing as you've done with number 2, you just changed the numbers. You can't just choose numbers.

Nicole: I realize that {tone changes} I think I'm going to pee

{Sam starts using his laptop}

Kerry: See, that's why the picture helps me better, because I'm like, what's actually happening physically (inaudible) and I keep coming to,

Nicole: well, and I think we all think in different ways

Kerry: well, yeah, we can have more thermal energy, but it's like my, my problem is my mind {touches head}, my problem is my experience with it {lifts hands} is contradicting what I come up with

Nicole: that's my problem, too. I just, that's why I can't sit there and, I can't think through the problem with the result in mind.

Kerry: yeah

Nicole: because I just get lost in this sea of well what if you did this, but what if you did this, what if you did this. It just doesn't work for me. Now, I can't really figure out which one is right, but I can figure out - ooh, sorry.

On the more positive side of the interaction:

• Nicole is responding to the question that was asked ("is it possible..").
• Sam and Kerry are both trying to connect what they are doing to their own experience.
• Nicole and Kerry seem to be trying to empathize with each other.
• Sam acknowledges and addresses Kerry's "why?"
• Nicole and Kerry are both attempting to articulate the difficulty that they have with this task - to think about their thinking.

However, all three of the participants in this clip seem to feel that their voice is not being heard or acknowledged:

• Sam attacks the use of "fuzzy math" because it contradicts what he knows to be true.
• Nicole is constantly justifying her approach and her representation.
• Kerry keeps trying to get a word in between Sam and Nicole.

One of the marks of Reflective Discourse (see here) is: "student/student exchanges involve one student trying to understand the thinking of another." In Rogerian terms, Relational Discourse (see here) is "genuine, acceptant, and empathetic." While there are some positive things in this interaction, I don't feel that this discourse can be described as either reflective or relational given these definitions.

More on a comparison between these two frameworks later...