This study explored the collaborative thinking and learning that occurred in physics and mathematics classes where teachers practiced Modeling Instruction. Four different classes were videotaped --a middle school mathematics resource class, a 9th grade physical science class, a high school honors physics class and a community college engineering physics course. Videotapes and transcripts were analyzed to discover connections between the conceptual structures and spatial representations that shaped students' conversations about space and time.

Along the way, it became apparent that students' and teachers' cultural models of schooling were a significant influence, sometimes positive and sometimes negative, in students' engagement and metaphor selection.

A growing number of researchers are exploring the importance of semiotics in physics and mathematics, but typically their unit of analysis is the individual student. To examine the distributed cognition that occurred in this unique learning setting, not just among students but also in connection with their tools, artifacts and representations, I extended the unit of analysis for my research to include small groups and their collaborative work with whiteboarded representations of contextual problems and laboratory exercises.