Nurturing twenty-first-century competency is one important agenda in this era, especially in developing collaborative learning and critical thinking skills. Yet, facilitating such a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment is challenging. Although several technological platforms from past research studies were developed to support collaborative learning, having a system that comprises a collaboration script, and graph-based workspaces to facilitate explicit externalization of cognitive processes, at the same time, armed with learning analytics to monitor the collaboration and cognitive processes is rare. In this paper, the AppleTree system is presented to illustrate three unique features. Firstly, the AppleTree system is designed with a graph-based workspace to facilitate explicit externalization of knowledge co-constructions and argumentation. Secondly, the system is embedded with a four-phased switch to structure the CSCL process. Thirdly, the system possesses real-time learning analytics, including contribution counts, social network analysis, and the learning artifacts’ argumentation structure to promote the development of arguments. An exploratory case study was conducted to examine the design of the AppleTree system in an authentic classroom. Empirical findings showed that the AppleTree system helped regulate effective collaboration and supported learners in developing strong arguments. These results could address the social participation and interaction issues related to collaborative learning and enable the development of students’ argumentation skills. The implications of the study to educational technology and the CSCL research field are discussed.

Engaging students in the process of argumentation is a productive way to help them deeper the understanding of socio-scientific issues (SSI). This study examined the effect of computer supported collaborative argumentation (CSCA) on Secondary school students’ SSI learning and the behavioral patterns of students’ CSCA. 122 secondary school students participated in this study. They were randomly divided into 29 groups. Through statistical analysis and epistemic network analysis, results showed that CSCA was effective in supporting secondary school students’ evidence-based argumentation skills on socio-scientific issues. The implications of this study are discussed.

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. 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.

Peer assessment is an important component in collaborative learning. Its effects have been substantially evidenced to vary with the types of feedback. This mixed-method study was conducted in a pre-service teachers’ TEL design learning context. It aimed to examine the different types of feedback and their affective nature on knowledge improvement. Specifically, the types of peer comments and their affective nature on pre-service teachers’ TPACK knowledge improvement were examined. The results showed that feedback that raised questions and concerns about the work and suggestive feedback gained the highest response rate leading to further improvement. Both positive and negative comments had the same impact on supporting the improvement of their work. The emoticon at the technology platform did not influence the participants with the affective state of the peer comments. The implications of future peer assessment implementations and the design of technology platforms to promote effective peer feedback are discussed.

Information and communications technology (ICT) is rapidly changing how we teach and how we learn. ICT can not only act as a teaching and learning aid but also reshape the delivery of instruction and bring about changes in education. Research has largely examined the effects of teacher education programs on their knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of technology integration and relatively little attention has been paid to their ability to use ICT to innovate instruction. This study examined how pre-teachers engaged in co-design via Google Slides, and how their behavioural characteristics influenced their improvement of instructional innovation with ICT of lesson design. The results of correlation and step regression analyses and lag sequential analysis showed that behaviours of engagement into individual ideation and within-group ideation in co-design activities positively related to the pre-service teachers’ innovations of lesson designs (i.e., usefulness and originality). The clarification type and positive affection type of peer feedback negatively related and predicted their innovations, and the worst-performed group tended to directly copy information from peer feedback. The implications of how pre-service teachers engaging in co-design activities affect their instructional innovations with ICT are discussed.

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is a pedagogical approach that has become commonplace in today’s education. Past research studies have shown that CSCL has positive impacts on students’ learning. However, productive collaborative learning does not come easy. To facilitate fruitful collaborative learning, collaborative scripts are recommended to engage the participants in active collaborative learning and support collaborative knowledge improvement. In a CSCL environment, designing, implementing, and managing collaboration activities can be challenging for teachers. Besides managing the collaborative learning process, the need to deal with different perspectives for knowledge co-construction, which is often encountered when pre-service teachers collaboratively design lessons during their teacher preparation courses, were generally lacking in the deeper examination. Understanding how the collaboration script can support collaborative learning to bring forth collaborative knowledge improvement in the context of this study is important.

This study examined how the collaboration script named Spiral Model of Collaborative Knowledge Improvement (SMKCI) supported the CSCL process for collaborative knowledge improvement. The context of this study was set in a pre-service teacher education programme in Singapore. The participants engaged in a computer-supported collaborative lesson design session via the SMCKI script to bring about collaborative knowledge improvement. This study aimed to examine how SMCKI supported pre-service teachers in collaboratively improving the quality of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) lesson design.

A mixed-method research design was adopted where both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analysis conducted. Twelve participants took part in the collaborative lesson design session. Data collected included the TEL design artifacts and the process logs generated throughout the SMCKI phases on the AppleTree system. Content analysis was employed to code the TEL design artifacts. Lag sequential analysis was used to examine the behavioural patterns across the scripted SMCKI phases, and uptake analysis was used to illustrate the uptake traces that led to the participants’ collaborative knowledge improvement. These two analyses served to reduce potential systematic biases and to strengthen the findings of this study. In all, this study showed that the SMCKI script supported the pre-service teachers in improving their TEL lesson design throughout the collaborative lesson design session. The improvement of the TEL lesson design from one phase to the next was portrayed in the quantitative results. This incremental improvement across the SMCKI phases was further demonstrated through the qualitative analysis. The process of collaborative knowledge improvement for group idea improvement is presented in this thesis.

This study has theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, studying the SMCKI in an authentic context is an under-explored area. Moreover, the analysis of the benefits of having an individual ideation phase before a collaborative learning phase to address the issues with CSCL and support collaborative knowledge improvement can contribute to the CSCL research field. From the perspective of analysing the CSCL processes, this study took on a quantitative lag sequential analysis to examine the immediate behavioural patterns across the SMCKI phases, followed by the qualitative uptake analysis to provide an in-depth description to illustrate knowledge uptake traces of knowledge improvement throughout the scripted learning process. These analyses served to elaborate on the collaborative learning process in detail, aiming to provide a deeper understanding of how scripting can benefit the collaborative learning processes. Moreover, this study took a different stance from the common reliance on self-report data when examining pre-service teachers’ experience with TEL lesson design via the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework, which can further advance the TPACK research. Practically, this study suggests how pre-service teachers can be developed as TEL lesson designers by engaging them in a collaborative lesson design session via an entirely virtual CSCL environment.

This paper examines the effect of a scripted peer-rating procedure for collaborative knowledge improvement in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. The context of the study was in pre-service teacher education. Participants underwent two rounds of computer-supported collaborative lesson design (CSCLD) guided by the five-phase Spiral Model of Collaborative Knowledge Improvement (SMCKI) script. The intergroup peer-rating phase (phase 3 of SMCKI) provided opportunities for participants to view and critique lesson ideas of other design groups. To ensure the quality of peer-rating, the rating procedure was micro-scripted so that the issues of social loafing, the bias in opinion, and avoiding criticism in the attempts to maintain harmony in the Asian culture norm can be averted. The findings show that the micro-scripted intergroup peer-rating bring forth quality feedback. Results also reveal that the feedback helped develop the pre-service teachers' TP A CK competencies in Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) design, indicating that micro-scripted peer-rating was effective in supporting collaborative knowledge improvement.

While there are many studies on students’ collaborative learning at the small group level, pedagogies and strategies for supporting students’ collaborative learning at the class level are underexplored. This study proposes a pedagogical model named the Spiral Model of Collaborative Knowledge Improvement (SMCKI) to inform the design and implementation of multi-layered collaborative learning activities in a networked class where there are many groups of students working collaboratively. Starting with a phase of individual ideation, the pedagogical model scaffolds students to go through five phases of intra-group and inter-group knowledge improvement and refinement, with the goal of supporting the advancement of their individual and collective knowledge. An exploratory case study is presented to illustrate how this model was used in a pre-service teachers’ technology-enhanced learning (TEL) activity design lesson in a Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environment. The results show that the participants significantly improved the quality of TEL design throughout the five phases of SMCKI. The implications of the findings on designing and implementing CSCL activities in authentic class environments are discussed.

Designing Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) lessons for 21st century learning has become an integral part of teacher education. However, developing pre-service teachers to design quality TEL lessons can be challenging as they need to keep up with the rapid proliferation of ICT tools. Besides, the competency to align technology with the relevant pedagogy and content knowledge can be overwhelming. Hence, this study presents a framework Spiral Model of Collaborative Lesson Design to scaffold pre-service teachers in designing TEL lessons. An exploratory study was conducted to examine this model. Informed by the Script Theory of Guidance, this model liberated on the five phases of the Spiral model of collaborative knowledge improvement collaborative script to engage participants in a collaborative lesson design session. Results showed that pre-service teachers’ TPACK and their TEL design competency had improved. The proposed model will contribute significantly to the professional development of pre-service teacher education.

This study investigates the role of a collaboration script, the Funnel Model, in supporting students’ computer-supported collaborative scientific argumentation, and how the students appropriated the collaboration script in scientific argumentation. In this exploratory case study, a class of 33 Secondary grade four students went through four phases of computer-supported collaborative argumentation activity scripted by the Funnel Model: individual ideation, intra-group synergy, inter-group critique and intra-group refinement. Multiple sources of data were collected including student-generated artefacts online at different phases of collaboration, and the post-intervention interviews with the students. The results show that the Funnel Model facilitated students’ computer-supported collaborative argumentation. The students’ levels of content mastery, motivation, classroom culture and time allocated for classroom participation affect students’ appropriation of the script for effective collaborative argumentation.

21世纪是一个资讯爆发的年代，科技资讯迅速发展，世界各国的教育方向也作出相应的调整，将重点放在培养孩子掌握技能的能力上。因此，有关技能教学方法的需求也日益增大。学生的学习过程也是一个将思维、知识与技能相结合为一体的学习过程。

为此，新加坡教育部也做了相应的教学改革。在众多改革中，加强思维训练是当中的核心之一。因此，本论文即对学生的写作思维技能进行了初步的研究。研究的目的旨在通过“UBD重理解思维教学下的写作思维教学”提升学生的写作能力。

此研究的研究对象是新加坡南区一所小学的39位五年级学生。所采用的研究方法是个案研究。研究过程主要是以“写作思维导向评量表”为检测工具来分析学生接受校本课程教学前后两个阶段的作文。研究结果显示，以UBD重理解课程设计的写作思维教学课程的确能提升学生的写作能力。

此研究验证了思维能力的训练确实能提高学生的写作能力。这也肯定了校本课程开发的信度和效度。校本课程的施行不但能使学校的华文教学方针达到一致性，也具备了因材施教的灵活性，同时也让教师们在不知不觉中走出传统的教学方式，学生能体验21世纪教学方式以及21世纪技能的培养，实在是对21世纪的教育起到重大的作用。

Online collaboration is considered as one of the effective strategies to improve students’ argumentation skills. This strategy reduces the effects of production blocking and evaluation apprehension on group performance. There are currently few studies that examine the role of students’ characteristics in argumentation skill improvement via online collaboration. During a fifty-minute argumentation lesson conducted by the secondary school English language teacher, students learned to construct argumentation by establishing ideas, claims, and evidence in an attempt to address contemporary issues via an online collaboration system. Prior to the lesson, students completed a motivation scale and preference for group work scale and an argumentation writing task. A similar argumentation writing task was also completed by the students after the lesson. Overall, this study demonstrated that explicit instruction in argumentation skills via online collaboration has positive effects on student’ argumentation skills gains, especially on students with a high preference for group work. Results showed that students’ extrinsic goal orientation negatively predicted their argumentation skills, whereas students’ task value and preference for group work positively predicted their argumentation skills on the posttest. The implications of the findings on the teaching practices of argumentation skills are discussed.