While collaborative learning activities are designed to foster inter-thinking and co-creation of knowledge, studies have suggested that these outcomes are not guaranteed simply because learners work together in groups. This study investigated the relationship between cognitive interaction during collaborative engagement and exploratory talk by analysing classroom dialogue and dialogic practices among 12 international Master of Arts in Education (MA Education) students participating in a collaborative problem-solving process. Data were collected from three different groups, totalling 10.5 h of collaborative problem-solving engagement. Two independent coders analysed these data using the Cambridge Dialogic Analysis Scheme toolkit. The analysis revealed variations in exploratory talk across the three groups. Exploratory talk was most likely to occur when ‘invitation’ codes were present. Notably, not all groups engaged in exploratory talk led to meaningful collaborative engagement, despite all groups successfully completing the assigned task by the end of collaborative problem-solving. This highlights a critical observation: task completion does not necessarily equate to deep, collaborative knowledge creation. © 2025 British Educational Research Association.
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