Engagement Fluctuations during Collaborative Learning: A Real-World EEG Study

Poster Session F - Tuesday, April 16, 2024, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Sheraton Hall ABC
Also presenting in Data Blitz Session 4 - Saturday, April 13, 2024, 1:00 – 2:30 pm EDT, Sheraton Hall EF.

Yushuang Liu¹ (yu-shuang.liu@uconn.edu), Ido Davidesco¹, Kim Chaloner², Emma Laurent³, Gabriella Amanda Ali³, Laura Noejovich³, Henry Valk³, Dana Bevilacqua³, David Poeppel³, Suzanne Dikker³; ¹University of Connecticut, ²Grace Church School, ³New York University

Collaborative learning is known to be effective, but not all students engage and benefit from it. Here, we conducted electroencephalography (EEG) recordings in a real-world classroom to examine how students engage in a collaborative learning task. A total of 36 high school students participated in the study in groups of four. Students were equipped with portable, 32-channel EEG devices and were instructed to collaboratively make a model of a cell. Student learning was assessed at the end of the EEG session using a test. The sessions were video recorded, and the behavior of each student was coded in 5-second segments, and classified as “on-task,” “off-task,” or “idle.” Analysis of the video data indicated that students alternated between on- and off-task states every 10 to 20 seconds. The amount of time students were continuously on-task was positively correlated with their test performance. Additionally, students were idle for about 13% of the time, meaning that they were not explicitly engaged with the task. However, based on behavior alone, it is challenging to assess how engaged students are cognitively. EEG analyses revealed that students exhibited higher alpha (8-12 Hz) activity when they were off-task compared to on-task, especially in posterior EEG electrodes. During idle periods, students’ alpha brain activity was indistinguishable from their brain activity during off-task periods. These findings provide key new evidence for the value of brain data collected in real-world learning settings.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Other