This paper investigates the role of gaze and gesture when subjects are
collaboratively solving physics problems with a computer. The results
from the study indicate that females interacting together as pairs do
use gaze significantly more than male pairs or those of mixed gender.
There is evidence that gaze occurs during the planning stages of the
problem solving activities and occurs more frequently by the speaker r
ather than the hearer during this phase. Mutual gazing occurs at this
time too. The main finding is that differences in non-verbal communica
tion strategies with respect to gender grouping effect not only the st
rategies that progress the collaborative process but more importantly
also those that influence the understanding of the problem space. Thes
e results suggest the quality of video linkage will play an important
role in collaborative problem solving for distance learners.