Teachers’ practices in scaffolding primary students’ technology-enhanced collaborative inquiry
University of Helsinki, Minna Lakkala, Marjaana Veermans & Liisa Ilomäki

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Evidence for the benefits of learning through inquiry and collaboration supported by technology has been reported (Goldman et al., 1998; Järvelä et al., 2001; Scardamalia, Bereiter & Lamon, 1994) but it has also became evident that such practices should be fostered by appropriate pedagogical arrangements and guidance (Edelson et al., 1999; Guzdial & Turns, 2000; Lehrer et al., 2000). The teacher’s pedagogical expertise is a central challenge in changing the pedagogical culture with web-based technologies. Puntambekar and Kolodner (2005) discuss about distributed scaffolding, by which they mean embedding the support for learners into the multiple elements of the complex learning environment: activity structures, teacher guidance, technological tools etc. Tabak (2004) stated that a crucial feature in distributed scaffolding is synergy between the various scaffolding methods. Our previous studies (Lakkala, Lallimo & Hakkarainen, 2005; Veermans, Lallimo & Hakkarainen, 2005) have revealed that teachers are uncertain how to guide students in technology-enhanced collaborative inquiry. There is a need for research-based knowledge in designing collaborative inquiry practices for authentic classroom settings. Most previous studies have examined only single study groups’ activity or have not focused on the teachers’ role in organising the entire collaborative inquiry process.

The aim of the present study was to examine how primary teachers implemented technology- enhanced inquiry learning in their classrooms, especially the teachers’ practices in structuring and guiding students’ inquiry. The study compared four cases, in which primary school teachers and students conducted inquiry learning units, in natural sciences and history, using a collaborative software tool (FLE3; http://fle3.uiah.fi) and applying the pedagogical model of progressive inquiry (Hakkarainen, 2003). The inquiry-learning units were carried out as part of the ordinary curriculum during classroom lessons; the units lasted from 7 to 11 weeks, and 2 to 8 lessons per week was allocated for the work. In all, five teachers and 126 students from five classes participated in the study; two of the teachers conducted a similar unit in their parallel classes. The investigated learning units were undertaken in the Finnish test sites during the ITCOLE project (http://www.euro-cscl.org/site/itcole) funded by European Union.

The data in the study consisted of the teachers’ written reports and learning logs, and the contents of the database in the FLE3 system, produced in the course of the inquiry-learning units. The analysis was based both on the quantitative measures of the participants’ activity and the qualitative content analysis of the produced knowledge.

The results indicated that the three experienced teachers put more effort at the overall organisation of the inquiry activities, whereas the novice teachers structured the process mainly around the abstract inquiry questions; the chosen scenario appears to have influenced the epistemic and social nature of the inquiry process. There was also some variation in the teacher’s way of guiding the inquiry discourse during the process. The experienced teachers interfered in the discourse rather delicately, whereas the novice teachers took a more active role in directing the process by generating themselves inquiry questions, or bringing in material from knowledge sources. Implications of the results for pedagogical improvement in collaborative, technology-enhanced educational settings are discussed.