The Temporal Development of Representational Practices: Implications for Theory and Analysis of Situated Learning

Technological resources for collaborative learning are productively conceived of as resources appropriated by learners as they develop their competencies. Therefore, to understand the implications of technological designs for collaborative learning, it is necessary to examine learners´ practices over time. Microanalytic approaches are most suitable for understanding learners´ practices, but have traditionally been applied primarily to single small episodes of learning. This limitation is related to an unnecessarily strict interpretation of the temporal locality of situated action. Drawing on a prior analysis of the temporal development of practices through which inscriptions become representations in online mathematics problem solving, this paper generalizes microanalysis to include temporally prior episodes in which interactionally relevant resources and practices are constructed. Related theoretical points concerning the relationship between the concept of practices and ethnomethodological principles of relevance and contingency are discussed.