Educational Research AY2018/2019

This study aimed to examine the effect of Scripted Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) on students’ individual writing. The Spiral Model of Collaborative Knowledge Improvement (SMCKI) pedagogical approach (Chen, Zhang, Wen, Looi & Yeo, 2019) was employed as the CSCL script to support the CSCL environment. Being exploratory in nature, a one-group pretest-posttest experimental design was employed. Two cycles of intervention were administered to the experimental class. During each cycle, the students engaged in collaborative learning (CoL) process through the five-phase SMCKI to construct three elements of the descriptive writing, namely speech, action, and emotion-based on a picture stimulus. Commencing with the phase 1 individual ideation, followed by phase 2 intra-group synergy, each member with the group explored upon the writing ideas populated by each member and fine-tuned the posts. Phase 3 inter-group critique leverage on class-level effort to feedback on the group effort of the descriptive writing elements. Phase 4 intra-group refinement reconvene within-group effort to refine the writing elements based on feedback from other groups. Concluding one cycle is the final phase where students consolidate all learning into an individual writing work. Multi-faceted data collected include pre-and post-survey, pre-writing, artefacts during the five-phase SMCKI and classroom observation video. Results revealed that the SMCKI script did help enhance students’ individual writing.