There is a need for research on the effect of different types of model progressions and learner age on learning and engagement in inquiry-based science settings. This study builds on the Scientific Discovery as Dual Search model to introduce less specific implicit model progression and compares them to the traditional explicit model progression. The data come from Finnish 8-, 10-, and 12-year-olds collaboratively using two different configurations of an inquiry-based learning environment about balance. Balance scale tasks were used to assess learning. Students also rated their situation-specific engagement. Both types of model progressions were beneficial for learning but there was no difference in the normalized change scores between them. The 12-year-olds had a higher normalized change score than the 8-year-olds. There were no differences in situation-specific engagement between the two types of model progression. These results suggest that implicit model progression offers a way to provide less specific guidance and a more open learning environment for primary-aged learners compared to the more specific explicit model progression.

Previous studies have proposed that students’ mathematical understanding develops dynamically through the process known as folding back, in which learners revisit earlier forms of understanding and use them to build even deeper levels of mathematical understanding. Digital learning environments, where students can manipulate representations, are often used to enable students to notice properties, patterns, or rules. When working in such an environment, students usually receive support from the environment and the teacher. The interplay between these different sources of support is important according to previous studies. In this study, we examine this interplay in the case of folding back. The study aims to understand how the teacher, together with the learning environment, can support the process of folding back. We collected data from second, fourth, and sixth grade students as they worked in groups to develop a rule for balancing a balance beam in a digital learning environment designed to support folding back. One pre-service teacher guided each three-student group. Data were analyzed by identifying occasions for folding back and characterizing different ways in which the interplay between the teacher and the environment supported students’ folding back. We found different kinds of synergy between the two sources of support. The teachers followed up on and augmented the support from the environment, initiated supplementary folding back, and reinforced the support from the environment. We also found non-synergy between the two sources of support, when the teachers’ support was not aligned with support from the environment.