Design for scaffolding collaborative inquiry and academic literacy for Chinese tertiary business students

Abstract

This study investigated how collaborative inquiry and social literacy acquisition took place in a computer-supported collaborative inquiry environment for Chinese tertiary business students. Participants were 102 Year 1 business students in four intact classes. Two classes experienced a principle-based computer-supported environment and two a conventional project-based approach. Data included survey, writing quality, portfolio, focus group interview and online interactions. Quantitative analyses indicated instructional groups outperformed comparison groups on conceptual understanding, inquiry processes and argumentative writing. Interview study characterized change dynamics under four contextual themes-epistemology, pedagogy, technology, community, pointing to facilitative role of design principles. Micro-level online discourse analysis characterized nature of discourse moves and group patterns suggesting a significant role of socio-metacognitive and explanatory discourse mediated by technology.