Metacognitive scaffolding during collaborative learning: a promising combination

This article explores the effect of computerized scaffolding with different scaffolds (structuring vs. problematizing) on intra-group metacognitive interaction. In this study, we investigate 4 types of intra-group social metacognitive activities; namely ignored, accepted, shared and co-constructed metacognitive activities in 18 triads (6 control groups; no scaffolds and 12 experimental groups; 6 structuring scaffolds and 6 problematizing scaffolds).We found that groups receiving scaffolding showed significantly more intra-group interactions in which the group members co-construct social metacognitive activities. Groups receiving problematizing scaffolds showed significantly less ignored and more co-constructed social metacognitive interaction compared to groups receiving structuring scaffolds. These findings indicate that scaffolding positively influenced the group members’ intra-group social metacognitive interaction. We also found a significant relation between students’ participation in intra-group social metacognitive interaction and students’ metacognitive knowledge. Twelve percent of the variance in students’ metacognitive knowledge was explained by their participation in intra-group shared social metacognitive interaction. Therefore, future research should consider how to design scaffolds that elicit intra-group social metacognitive interaction among group members to enhance the development of students’ metacognitive knowledge

Children’s Macro-Level Navigation Patterns in Hypermedia and their Relation with Task Structure and Learning Outcomes

This study investigated macro-level navigation patterns in children’s hypermedia learning, and how they related to task structure and learning outcomes. For this purpose, 5th and 6th grade learners performed a hypermedia assignment in which a high (n=57) versus a low (n=54) level of structure was provided. By means of qualitative analyses of their navigation activities, 6 macro-level navigation patterns were distinguished: linear reading, selective reading, video viewing, massed writing, late onset writing, and unpredictable reading. Results showed that the linear reading pattern was more frequent in the high structure environment, and that both the high structure environment and the linear reading pattern were associated with the highest quality of the children’s written assignments. Navigation patterns and task structure did not clearly predict children’s declarative knowledge gains or knowledge transfer. These findings show that there are multiple ways to navigate through a hypermedia environment, but that these are not all equally successful for learning. Moreover, the provided task structure in the environment may affect the occurrence of successful navigation patterns

Agency in Educational Technology: Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Implications for Learning Design

Advancing learners’ agency is a key educational goal. The advent of personalized EdTech, which automatically tailor learning environments to individual learners, gives renewed relevance to the topic. EdTech researchers and practitioners are confronted with the same basic question: What is the right amount of agency to give to learners during their interactions with EdTech? This question is even more relevant for younger learners. Our aim in this paper is twofold: First, we outline and synthesize the ways in which agency is conceptualized in three key learning disciplines (philosophy, education, and psychology). We show that there are different types and levels of agency and various prerequisites for the effective exercise of agency and that these undergo developmental change. Second, we provide guiding principles for how agency can be designed for in EdTech for children. We propose an agency personalization loop in which the level of agency provided by the EdTech is assigned in an adaptive manner to strike a balance between allowing children to freely choose learning content and assigning optimal content to them. Finally, we highlight some examples from practice

Towards investigating the validity of measurement of self-regulated learning based on trace data

Contains fulltext : 250033.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)Contemporary research that looks at self-regulated learning (SRL) as processes of learning events derived from trace data has attracted increasing interest over the past decade. However, limited research has been conducted that looks into the validity of trace-based measurement protocols. In order to fill this gap in the literature, we propose a novel validation approach that combines theory-driven and data-driven perspectives to increase the validity of interpretations of SRL processes extracted from trace-data. The main contribution of this approach consists of three alignments between trace data and think aloud data to improve measurement validity. In addition, we define the match rate between SRL processes extracted from trace data and think aloud as a quantitative indicator together with other three indicators (sensitivity, specificity and trace coverage), to evaluate the "degree" of validity. We tested this validation approach in a laboratory study that involved 44 learners who learned individually about the topic of artificial intelligence in education with the use of a technology-enhanced learning environment for 45 minutes. Following this new validation approach, we achieved an improved match rate between SRL processes extracted from trace-data and think aloud data (training set: 54.24%; testing set: 55.09%) compared to the match rate before applying the validation approach (training set: 38.97%; test set: 34.54%). By considering think aloud data as "reference point", this improvement of the match rate quantified the extent to which validity can be improved by using our validation approach. In conclusion, the novel validation approach presented in this study used both empirical evidence from think aloud data and rationale from our theoretical framework of SRL, which now, allows testing and improvement of the validity of trace-based SRL measurements.39 p