An activity theory analysis of group work in mathematical modelling

In this paper we analyse the activity of a group of engineering undergraduate students while working on a mathematical modelling task. Using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory as analytical framework, we focus our attention on their social interactions to understand how these mediate the collective sense making of the group and determine in great part the outcome of the activity. We conclude that a key factor to students’ mathematical learning in collaborative tasks is the quality of peer interactions which stems from students’ competences, such as communicative and inter-personal skills.