Creating shared representations can foster knowledge acquisition by elementary school students by promoting active integration and translation of new information. In this study, we investigate to what extent awareness support and scripting facilitate knowledge construction and discourse quality of elementary school students (n=94) in a computersupported collaborative drawing scenario. Students in the awareness condition received feedback prompts based on the characteristics of their drawing. The script foresaw a sequence of creating, comparing, discussing, and merging individual drawings to arrive at a shared representation of the subject matter, which was photosynthesis. Both forms of support, (awareness and scripting) facilitated the learning processes and outcomes. Discourse analysis revealed that awareness and scripting increased (the share of) integrative and conflict-oriented consensus-building activities as well as (the share of) off-task and coordination-related activities in comparison to the control group. Awareness and scripting facilitated deeper understanding of the processes and relations of domain concepts. The scripted students acquired significantly more conceptual knowledge than the unscripted students.

Literature agrees that learning in heterogeneous groups could benefit from support that structures the cooperative process, but has been inconclusive as to what this support should look like. This study investigated the effects of a worksheet that structured a heterogeneous cooperative process. The worksheet addressed the elements of social interdependence theory. Fourth to sixth graders ( n = 136) worked cooperatively in 34 heterogeneous groups of four, either with or without the worksheet. Results showed that heterogeneous cooperation benefited from the worksheet. Group members with the worksheet participated more equally in the domain-related dialogue, and a larger proportion of the group dialogue was task oriented and spent on exchanging domain-related explanations in comparison with the control group. However, adding the worksheet helped only low-ability children to increase their level of knowledge. Future research should look into possibilities for children’s learning outcomes to benefit more from improved heterogeneous group dialogue.

Having students inspect and use each other's work is a promising way to advance inquiry-based science learning. Research has nevertheless shown that additional guidance is needed for students to take full advantage of the work produced by their peers. The present study investigated whether scaffolding through an integrated support tool could bring about the desired effect. This tool was embedded in an online inquiry learning environment and outlined the steps in searching for information in peer-created concept maps. It also contained specific directions to assess the quality of the retrieved information. The effectiveness of this search guidance tool was investigated during an inquiry-based science project. Main results indicated that high school students who were supported by the tool (n = 19) developed a more differentiated and interconnected conceptual understanding than students who did not receive this scaffold (n = 23). However, the search guidance tool also seemed to put additional demands on students' self-regulatory abilities, and might therefore require some practice or regulatory support to reach its full potential.

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Creating graphical representations can foster knowledge gains on science topics in elementary school students by promoting active integration and translation of new information. Collaborating on joint representations may encourage children to discuss and elaborate their knowledge. To foster productive interactions, children may greatly benefit from additional guidance through collaboration scripts or careful group composition. In this study, we investigate the effects of script support and group composition by social preference on children's learning processes and outcomes in a collaborative drawing setting within science education. The script foresaw a phase of individual preparation and prompted learners to engage in critical interactions. Group composition was based on children's preferences for peers to work with. Results show that whereas the drawings of unscripted children depicted the concepts to be learned more adequately, scripted children acquired more domain knowledge during the experience. We discuss how a script can facilitate learning through collaborative drawing by imposing additional challenges on children's interactions.