A spiral model of collaborative knowledge improvement to support collaborative argumentation for science learning: Technological and pedagogical design

Abstract

Innovations in teaching and learning are not merely about merely the design of technologies but the integration of technologies and pedagogical practices in supporting meaningful learning. This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of a web-based system to support secondary school students’ collaborative argumentation (CA) in science learning in Singapore. A pedagogical model named the Spiral Model of Collaborative Knowledge Improvement (SMCKI) is proposed in this study to inform the system and learning activity design. Starting with a stage of individual brainstorming, the pedagogical model scaffolds students to go through five stages of intra-group and inter-group knowledge improvement and refinement, to support the advancement of their collective and individual knowledge. The results showed that the students significantly improved on their scientific content knowledge through the staged collaboration argumentation activities in the web based learning environment.