The influence of instructor support levels on collaborative knowledge construction

Collaborative knowledge construction (CKC) requires students to work together in groups to solve shared problems and instructors need to provide supports for student groups. Since previous research shows the complicated and varied effects of different instructional factors on student groups' CKC, it is necessary to examine the effects of different instructor support levels (i.e., the depth of instructor scaffolding) on collaboration. This research collected process-oriented verbal communication data from an instructor and three student groups in the authentic, face-to-face discussion contexts and used multiple learning analytics methods to examine the effects of three instructor support levels (i.e., high, medium, and low) on student groups' CKC processes. Results revealed different CKC characteristics under three instructor support levels, namely the individual-oriented perspective sharing under the high-level instructor support, questioning-oriented perspective processing under the medium-level instructor support, and the group-oriented perspective elaboration under the low-level instructor support. Based on the results, pedagogical implications were proposed to guide future instructional design and practice of CKC in higher education.