The paper explores certain phenomena which arise in stories, conversations, and human activity in general when the plans of two individuals are formed and carried out in an interactive situation. A notation system for representing interacting plans is introduced and applied in the analysis of a small portion of “Hansel and Gretel.” The analysis illustrates how a single actor plan can be modified by the needs of cooperative interaction with others and how cooperative interactive episodes can be transformed and used (...) deceptively by one party in achieving his or her own covert goals. (shrink)

What is the role of gesture in classroom science talk? This study first approaches the question generally, by asking how children communicate their knowledge of the seasons. We then ask how gestures function as they interplay with language in students' science talk. A typology, coded for High or Low lexical and gestural specification, summarized how thirteen sixth graders externalized their knowledge of seasonal change. Applying it to sixteen student discourse excerpts, we tested its usefulness as an analytical tool. Representational gestures (...) functioned as redundant to, or enhancing of ideas expressed through speech, or alternatively as carriers of scientific meaning. Findings show that gestures are an expected mode of communication in the science classroom. They can reveal student knowledge that is missing from verbal communication. Additionally, gestures may figure crucially in the construction as well as the communication of scientific insights. (shrink)

The interpretive processes required to understand the context and goals of an algorithmic task are illustrated in the use of an intelligent instructional system developed to train soldiers to monitor a computerized missile's system automatic identification of aircraft. The problems students had in understanding the identification task were addressed in INCOFT, a simulation-based intelligent instructional system that depends, in part, on human instructors to convey the task framework. Supported by recent advances in the cognitive science of instruction, the concept ofapprenticeship (...) provides a model for the student-machine as well as the student-instructor interactions observed in the use of INCOFT. The system's instantiation of apprenticeship illustrates an alternative to conventional tutorial-based design of intelligent instructional systems. (shrink)