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Advancements in artificial intelligence are rapidly increasing. The new-generation large language models, such as ChatGPT and GPT-4, bear the potential to transform educational approaches, such as peer-feedback. To investigate peer-feedback at the intersection of natural language processing (NLP) and educational research, this paper suggests a cross-disciplinary framework that aims to facilitate the development of NLP-based adaptive measures for supporting peer-feedback processes in digital learning environments. To conceptualize this process, we introduce a peer-feedback process model, which describes learners' activities and textual products. Further, we introduce a terminological and procedural scheme that facilitates systematically deriving measures to foster the peer-feedback process and how NLP may enhance the adaptivity of such learning support. Building on prior research on education and NLP, we apply this scheme to all learner activities of the peer-feedback process model to exemplify a range of NLP-based adaptive support measures. We also discuss the current challenges and suggest directions for future cross-disciplinary research on the effectiveness and other dimensions of NLP-based adaptive support for peer-feedback. Building on our suggested framework, future research and collaborations at the intersection of education and NLP can innovate peer-feedback in digital learning environments.

Using the theory of planned behavior, we investigated whether attitudes, subjective norms, and self-efficacy facilitate pre-service teachers' engagement in evidence-informed reasoning about classroom problems. N = 157 pre-service teachers were asked about these motivationally relevant antecedents to engaging in evidence-informed reasoning about classroom-related challenges and analyzed case scenarios of problematic teaching situations. Results revealed that self-reported evidence-informed reasoning was directly predicted by intention to engage in evidence-informed reasoning, self-efficacy, and attitude toward evidence-informed reasoning. However, the objectively coded quality of teachers' evidence-informed reasoning was seemingly negatively predicted by perceived costs and self-efficacy. Thus, the theory of planned behavior partly explained self-reported evidence-informed reasoning, but not objectively observed reasoning. Pre-service teachers might not be skilled enough to assess their own competency accurately and might be unaware of external conditions facilitating or hindering evidence-informed reasoning. Thus, interventions aiming to foster pre-service teachers' motivation to engage in evidence-informed reasoning might not be effective until such teachers gain the necessary skills.

It has been suggested that self-organized study groups need to regulate their learning at three levels: the self-, the co-, and the socially shared level. Yet, little is known about how individual learner characteristics influence these regulation processes. In this study, we investigate how students' achievement goals are associated with regulation processes within groups. Two hundred and seventy-seven undergraduates were asked to imagine being part of a self-organized study group with comprehension-related and motivational problems and to name strategies they would apply to regulate their learning in this situation in an open-ended format. Achievement goals were measured using a standardised questionnaire. Results indicated that mastery- and performance-approach goals are positively associated with regulatory effort across all three levels of regulation. Performance-avoidance goals seem to have no significant relationship with regulatory effort.

To be able to collaborate effectively and efficiently has been described as a complex and crucial twenty-first century skill. During collaboration, however, a variety of problems may emerge that require groups to engage in effective regulation processes, which is a complex task in itself. Up to now, little is known about (a) what types of strategies learners of such groups typically apply to regulate their learning, and (b) on which social levels (self vs. co vs. shared-level) they apply these strategies to account for different kinds of problems that may surface during collaboration. To address these questions, we developed four case vignettes that described a study group during exam preparation, in which problems were systematically varied in a 2 × 2 within-subjects design (present vs. absent motivational or comprehension-related problems). Using an open-ended format, N = 278 students were asked to describe (a) the strategies they would apply, and (b) the social levels at which they would apply these strategies in each of the four problem situations. Answers were coded and quantified by aid of an in-depth, theory-based coding scheme. Results showed that students react to motivational problems with more motivational but less cognitive strategies and to comprehension-related problems with more cognitive, but a similarly high use of motivational strategies. Thus, students seem to tackle motivational problems in a more problem-sensitive way than comprehension-related problems -- a finding which was found also across social levels. These findings bear important implications for process-related research on social regulation and for the design of interventions.

Collaboration scripts and heuristic worked examples have been described as powerful scaffolds to support skill acquisition in CSCL. While CSCL scripts particularly facilitate argumentative discourse within groups, heuristic worked examples provide heuristics and worked out pathways to solve domain-specific tasks. Yet, both scripts and heuristic worked examples are often designed in a one-size-fits-all fashion. Granting learners the opportunity to adapt these scaffolds to their self-perceived needs might be a way to further enhance their effects. We tested this assumption in two experiments. In experiment 1, we compared the effects of learning with adaptable and non-adaptable CSCL scripts. In experiment 2, we compared the effects of learning with adaptable and non-adaptable heuristic worked examples. University students (N = 167) learned repeatedly in pairs with either adaptable or non-adaptable scaffolding in the context of mathematical conjecture problems. Results show that adaptable CSCL scripts were partly helpful for students with higher levels of self-regulation skills. Non-adaptable maximal scaffolding supported learning of distinctive skill components. Social-discursive components were best facilitated by maximal heuristic worked examples through content knowledge scaffolds. In contrast, CSCL scripts best facilitated domain-specific skill components by scaffolding learners' engagement in social discourse about domain knowledge. The study provides recommendations for designing adaptable scaffolding by taking into account the relation between the targeted skill component and the activities scaffolded in the learning process. We suggest conducting future studies on adaptable scaffolding with a focus on supporting learning regulation and group awareness to improve learners' success in CSCL environments.

Technology may promote student engagement in high-level learning processes in the classroom. Yet, whether teachers really exploit technology's potential to support student learning depends on their expertise. The authors compared pre-service and technology-experienced in-service teachers' reasoning about technology-enhanced lessons by means of lesson plans. The authors assumed that technology-experienced teachers' lesson plans would target more high-level learning activities than those of pre-service teachers. They asked N = 134 pre-service and technology-experienced in-service teachers to plan an ideal technology-enhanced classroom lesson. The teachers were requested to report the types of learning activities they would have students engage in, both during technology-enhanced and non-technology-enhanced lesson activities. As assumed, in-service teachers were more likely to include higher-level technology-enhanced learning activities than pre-service teachers. However, the authors found no differences for non-technology-enhanced learning activities. Based on these findings and further qualitative analyses, implications for curriculum design are drawn.

To provide clients with the best possible treatment, social workers require fallacy recognition skills. Ideally, these skills are already acquired during university education. We conducted an experimental study with a 2 × 2 factorial design (and an additional baseline condition) with worked examples (with/without) and external scripts (with/without) as scaffolds to support social work students' (N=130) fallacy recognition skills during case-based reasoning on the exchange of fallacious arguments of social workers in the context of a web-based learning environment. Students significantly improved their fallacy recognition skills over time. During treatment, worked examples and external scripts yielded positive effects when presented in isolation, but not when combined. However, the effects of the two scaffolds could not be maintained in the posttest. Further systematic research is needed to identify principles for an effective design of additional instructional guidance.

Digital technologies can have positive effects on student learning in higher education. Based on the ICAP framework, they should be particularly effective when teachers use them to encourage student engagement in constructive and interactive as opposed to passive and active learning activities. Using a sample of 381 higher education students, we investigated if student engagement in these activities depends on whether technologies are implemented in class or not, and how engagement in these activities affects learning outcomes. Results indicated that when technologies were implemented in class, students felt encouraged to engage in more constructive, but also in more passive and active activities as compared to when no technologies were used. Furthermore, student engagement in active, constructive, and interactive activities was positively associated with learning outcomes.

This study investigates if collaboration and the level of heterogeneity between collaborating partners' problem-solving scripts can influence the extent to which pre-service teachers engage in evidence-based reasoning when analyzing and solving pedagogical problem cases. We operationalized evidence-based reasoning through its content and process dimensions: (a) to what extent pre-service teachers refer to scientific theories or evidence of learning and instruction (content level) and (b) to what extent they engage in epistemic processes of scientific reasoning (process level) when solving pedagogical problems. Seventy-six pre-service teachers analyzed and solved a problem about an underachieving student either individually or in dyads. Compared with individuals, dyads of pre-service teachers referred less to scientific content, but engaged more in hypothesizing and evidence evaluation and less in generating solutions. A greater dyadic heterogeneity indicated less engagement in generating solutions. Thus, collaboration may be a useful means for engaging preservice teachers in analyzing pedagogical problems in a more reflective and evidence-based manner, but pre-service teachers may still need additional scaffolding to do it based on scientific theories and evidence. Furthermore, heterogeneous groups regarding the collaborating partners' problem-solving scripts may require further instructional support to discuss potential solutions to the problem.

Argumentative scripts for computer-supported collaborative learning are scaffolds that prompt learners to take over distributed roles and to move through a sequence of activities that specify an argumentative learning discourse. Argumentative scripts may lead to suboptimal effects on learning outcomes when their level of scaffolding does not fit learners' prerequisites regarding argumentation. This study compares the effects of three different levels of argumentative scripts on learners' argumentation knowledge and learning motivation. Results show that university freshmen in the context of mathematics seem to learn best when the argumentative script targets a medium level, scaffolding the sequence of social discourse, but not necessarily the construction of single arguments. Non-significant results regarding the effects on motivational variables speak against the concern that a too detailed structure of scripts may be detrimental for learning due to reduced learning motivation.

Introduction: Research has suggested that how learners act in CSCL environments is considerably influenced by their internal collaboration scripts. These scripts are knowledge structures that reside in an individual's memory and consist of play, scene, scriptlet, and role components. In its "internal script configuration principle," the Script Theory of Guidance suggests that as learners work in a CSCL environment, these components are dynamically (re-) configured, and that this (re-)configuration is influenced by the goals of the individual learner. However, this principle has not yet been tested empirically. Methods: In this study, upon entering a CSCL environment, we therefore experimentally manipulated the goals that students pursued while learning. In one condition, we induced learning goals while in the other condition, no goals were induced. A total of 233 pre-service teachers collaborated in dyads on the task to analyze an authentic, problematic classroom situation by aid of educational evidence. We measured their internal scripts both at pre-test (i.e., before collaboration and before goal induction) and post-test (i.e., after collaboration and goal induction), focusing on the scriptlet level. Results: Results show that goal induction had no effects on the kinds of scriptlets participants selected during collaboration. However, results from Epistemic Network Analysis show that learning goal induction led to significantly different combinations of scriptlets (especially to more relations between scriptlets that are indicative of pursuing learning goals) than no goal induction. Furthermore, participants from the learning goal induction acquired significantly more knowledge about educational theories and evidence than students from the control condition. Conclusion: This study is among the first to provide direct evidence for the internal script configuration principle and demonstrates the effectiveness of inducing learning goals as a scaffold to support students' knowledge acquisition processes in CSCL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: University students frequently prepare for exams or presentations in self-organized study groups. For this purpose, they often use videoconferencing software. During their collaboration, they need to regulate emerging problems to ensure effective learning. We suppose that regulation is facilitated when (1) the group perceives their regulation problems homogeneously, (2) they choose regulation strategies that have the potential to solve the problems immediately, and (3) they execute these strategies with sufficient intensity. Aims: We investigated which problems occur during online collaborative learning via videoconferencing and how homogeneity of problem perceptions, immediacy of the chosen strategies, and intensity of strategy use are related to regulation success. Sample: University students (N = 222) from two lectures in pre-service teacher education and educational sciences in 99 study groups. Methods: Students collaborated in a self-organized manner, that is, without a teacher present, to study the material of one lecture using videoconferencing software. After the collaboration, group members rated, individually, the intensity of different problems during collaboration, reported which strategies they used to overcome their biggest problem, and rated the success of their problem regulation, their satisfaction with their collaboration, as well as their learning gain. In addition, they answered a knowledge test. Results: We found that most students rated technical issues as their biggest problem. Multilevel modeling showed that homogeneous problem perception moderated by problem intensity--contrary to immediate and intensive strategy use--predicted successful problem regulation and satisfaction with the collaboration but not knowledge gain. Case analyses illustrate the assumed mechanism that a homogeneous problem perception facilitates socially shared regulation. Conclusion: We conclude that even in only slightly structured learning contexts, students might only need to jointly identify their problems, whereas the best possible regulation of these problems seems less relevant. Therefore, training students to foster regulation competencies might prioritize identifying problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very often, university students deliberately form self-organized study groups, e.g. to study collaboratively for an upcoming exam. Yet, very little is known about what regulation problems such self-organized study groups encounter during their learning process and how they try to cope with these problems. Therefore, this study investigates how completely self-organized groups (i.e., non-guided groups outside the classroom that form without external impulse) regulate their collaborative learning process when faced with different kinds of regulation problems. More specifically, we tested the hypotheses that members of self-organized study groups are more satisfied with their group learning experience (a) the more homogeneous their problem perceptions are within their group, (b) the more they apply immediate (rather than non-immediate) strategies to remedy their regulation problems, and (c) the more frequently they apply regulation strategies. In a longitudinal study, N = 122 students, voluntarily studying for their exams in N = 52 groups, were asked to indicate the types of problems they experienced, the types of strategies they used to tackle those problems, and their satisfaction with their group learning experience after each of their self-organized study meetings. Hierarchical linear modeling confirmed all hypotheses. Qualitative analysis of two selected groups' self-reported situational data provided additional insights about the mechanisms that may have contributed to the results. Our study provides important directions for future research, including the recommendation to identify the processes by which groups (a) can reach homogeneity of problem perceptions and (b) coordinate the choice of appropriate strategies within the group.

Scientific reasoning and scientific argumentation are highly valued outcomes of K-12 and higher education. In this article, we first review main topics and key findings of three different strands of research, namely research on the development of scientific reasoning, research on scientific argumentation, and research on approaches to support scientific reasoning and argumentation. Building on these findings, we outline current research deficits and address five aspects that exemplify where and how research on scientific reasoning and argumentation needs to be expanded. In particular, we suggest to ground future research in a conceptual framework with three epistemic modes (advancing theory building about natural and social phenomena, artefact-centred scientific reasoning, and science-based reasoning in practice) and eight epistemic activities (problem identification, questioning, hypothesis generation, construction and redesign of artefacts, evidence generation, evidence evaluation, drawing conclusions as well as communicating and scrutinizing scientific reasoning and its results). We further propose addressing the domain specificities and domain generalities of scientific reasoning and argumentation as well as approaches for facilitation. Finally, we argue for investigating the role of epistemic emotions, the role of the social context, and the influence of digital technologies on scientific reasoning and argumentation.

Research on "computer-supported collaborative learning" (CSCL) is often concerned with the question of how scaffolds or other characteristics of learning may affect learners' social and cognitive engagement. Such engagement in socio-cognitive activities frequently materializes in discourse. In quantitative analyses of discourse, utterances are typically coded, and differences in the frequency of codes are compared between conditions. However, such traditional "coding-and-counting-based strategies" neglect the "temporal" nature of verbal data, and therefore provide limited and potentially misleading information about CSCL activities. Instead, we argue that analyses of the temporal proximity, specifically temporal co-occurrences of codes, provide a more appropriate way to characterize socio-cognitive activities of learning in CSCL settings. We investigate this claim by comparing and contrasting a traditional coding-and-counting analysis with "epistemic network analysis" (ENA), a discourse analysis technique that models temporal co-occurrences of codes in discourse. We apply both methods to data from a study that compared the effects of individual vs. collaborative problem solving. The results suggest that compared to a traditional coding-and-counting approach, ENA provides more insight into the socio-cognitive learning activities of students.

Mathematical argumentation skills (MAS) are considered an important outcome of mathematics learning, particularly in secondary and tertiary education. As MAS are complex, an effective way of supporting their acquisition may require combining different scaffolds. However, how to combine different scaffolds is a delicate issue, as providing learners with more than one scaffold may be overwhelming, especially when these scaffolds are presented at the same time in the learning process and when learners' individual learning prerequisites are suboptimal. The present study therefore investigated the effects of the presentation sequence of introducing two scaffolds (collaboration script first vs. heuristic worked examples first) and the fading of the primarily presented scaffold (fading vs. no fading) on the acquisition of dialogic and dialectic MAS of participants of a preparatory mathematics course at university. In addition, we explored how prior knowledge and working memory capacity moderated the effects. Overall, 108 university freshmen worked in dyads on mathematical proof tasks in four treatment sessions. Results showed no effects of the presentation sequence of the collaboration script and heuristic worked examples on dialogic and dialectic MAS. Yet, fading of the initially introduced scaffold had a positive main effect on dialogic MAS. Concerning dialectic MAS, fading the collaboration script when it was presented first was most effective for learners with low working memory capacity. The collaboration script might be appropriate to initially support dialectic MAS, but might be overwhelming for learners with lower working memory capacity when combined with heuristic worked examples later on.

Scripts for computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) offer socio-cognitive scaffolding for learners to engage in collaborative activities that are considered beneficial for learning. Yet, CSCL scripts are often criticized for hampering naturally emerging collaboration. Research on the effectiveness of CSCL scripts has shown divergent results. This article reports a meta-analysis about the effects of CSCL scripts on domain-specific knowledge and collaboration skills. Results indicate that CSCL scripts as a kind of socio-cognitive scaffolding can enhance learning outcomes substantially. Learning with CSCL scripts leads to a small positive effect on domain-specific knowledge (d = 0.20) and a large positive effect on collaboration skills (d = 0.95) compared to unstructured CSCL. Further analyses reveal that CSCL scripts are particularly effective for domain-specific learning when they prompt transactive activities (i.e., activities in which a learner's reasoning builds on the contribution of a learning partner) and when they are combined with additional content-specific scaffolding (worked examples, concept maps, etc.). Future research on CSCL scripts should include measures of learners' internal scripts (i.e., prior collaboration skills) and the transactivity of the actual learning process.

Collaboration scripts have repeatedly been implemented in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) to facilitate collaboration processes and individual learning. However, finding the right degree of structure is a subtle design task: scripts that are too rigid may impair self-regulation and hinder learning; scripts that are too flexible may fail to evoke high-level interactions. This study investigated whether making collaboration scripts adaptable would be a way to raise their effectiveness. Three experimental phases were realized: In a first phase (exposure phase), all students solved three problem cases by aid of a collaboration script in an asynchronous, text-based CSCL environment. In a second phase (treatment phase), another three cases were presented that were to be solved by aid of a different theory that was presented to the learners through a summary on a sheet of paper. During this phase, a three-groups between-subject design was realized: (a) an unscripted condition, in which students received no specific guidance how to structure their collaboration, (b) a non-adaptable script condition, in which students' collaboration was guided by the collaboration script they were trained in before, and (c) an adaptable script condition, in which students were allowed to modify parts of the trained script based on their self-perceived needs. In a third phase (subsequent transfer phase), students received a new case that they were to solve without guidance. N = 87 university students participated. Results showed that during the treatment phase, planning processes were most often performed in the unscripted condition. Yet, the adaptable script substantially increased students' engagement in metacognitive activities of planning compared to learning with a non-adaptable script, and increased monitoring and reflection activities when compared to learning without script. Mediation analyses showed that the adaptable script facilitated learners' use of self-regulation skills in the subsequent, unscripted transfer phase through the promotion of co-regulation processes of reflection in the treatment phase. The results reveal that adaptable scripting is a promising means of implementing flexible scripting and promoting self-regulation in CSCL.