Productive subjective failure in a learning community: Process of explicating and negotiating norms

This paper presents a case study of an exemplary blended graduate classroom learning community that showed students taking responsibility over their own collaborative learning. Specifically, the group went through a stage of productive subjective failure before intentionally deciding to explicate and negotiate their own group norms. This transition saw a marked increase in collaboration among group members. Using a micro-genetic interpretive approach, we analyzed the stages of group development that led to this outcome. Our findings indicate that the process of explicating and negotiating norms (PENN) was the climactic event whereby the group transformed their responsibility and collaborative learning behavior. We discuss the implications of our findings, which we believe inform both theory and design of productive failure in CSCL.