This paper shows how reasoning upon questions and hypotheses built collaboratively can lead to knowledge-building and conceptual change in hypermedia conferencing systems. It is a qualitative study of the conditional reasoning process carried on in a biology mixed-mode undergraduate course on mammals delivered in the fall semester of 1998. The professor applied Socratic maieutic by posing online questions to the students, and then reasoning upon the answers and raising new questions in face-to-face encounters. We applied the meaning implication analysis to study the role of production systems in the conditional reasoning activity, taken in their logical (procedural) and referential (declarative) dimensions altogether. Results show qualitative circumscribed evidence of high order reasoning and conceptual change, and indication mat high order learning had been achieved through collaborative knowledge building. The study discusses implications for course and conferencing systems design, and gives directions for new forms of representation in asynchronous conferencing systems.
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