ABSTRACT
Collaborative learning provides a natural context for learners’ engagement in high-level discursive activities such as explaining, questioning, or arguing, which in turn – mediated by high-level cognitive processing –is predictive for knowledge and skill acquisition. Yet, groups often do not collaborate at a high level and hence typically need to be scaffolded. Such scaffolding may come in the form of scripts. This chapter provides an overview over the existing research on scaffolding and scripting (computer-supported) collaborative learning by asking five questions: (1) Who provides scaffolding in collaborative learning? (2) Who is the recipient of such scaffolding? (3) What learning activities are targeted by the scaffolding? (4) What are the intended effects of scaffolding? And (5) what types of scaffolds for collaborative learning can be differentiated? Based on the Script Theory of Guidance, the chapter also provides suggestions on how to realize scaffolding in a flexible, adaptive and adaptable way.
