A meta-analysis examining the moderating effects of educational level and subject area on CSCL effectiveness

Juanjuan Chen ,Minhong Wang ,Paul A Kirschner ,Chin Chung Tsai

doi:10.34105/j.kmel.2019.11.022

Abstract

The positive effects of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) on students’ learning outcomes and processes have been widely reported in individual empirical studies and meta-analyses. More specifically, in the meta-analysis by Chen, Wang, Kirschner, and Tsai (2018), the effects were found to be attributed to the three main elements of CSCL including collaborative learning, computer use, extra learning environments/tools or extra supporting strategies. This study extends that meta-analysis by examining the moderating effects of educational level and subject area on the effectiveness of CSCL. The moderating effects of educational level were found not to be significant on the effectiveness of collaborative learning, computer use, extra learning environments or tools, or extra supporting strategies with respect to student knowledge achievement. Subject area, on the other hand, was found to be a significant moderator for the effectiveness of extra learning environments or tools and extra supporting strategies. When using extra learning environments or tools for CSCL, larger effect sizes were found for engineering and science courses; when using extra supporting strategies for CSCL, larger effect sizes were found for science and social science courses. The results also showed that more studies were conducted at the university level and in engineering, science, and social science disciplines.

Highlights

Drawing on social constructivism and shared cognition (Salomon & Perkins, 1998; Stahl, 2006), collaborative learning (CL) emphasizes that knowledge is shared among and sometimes co-constructed by two or more group members, mostly through social interactions (Dillenbourg, 1999)
Due to the relatively small number of studies reporting skills at each educational level (i.e., 2 at primary level, 2 at secondary level, 12 at university level, and 1 at adult level) and/or perceptions (i.e., 4 at primary level, 1 at secondary level, and 21 at university level), moderator analysis was only performed for knowledge achievement
The effects found were mostly attributed to the three main elements of Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) including collaborative learning, computer use, extra learning environments/tools or extra supporting strategies

Summary

Introduction

Drawing on social constructivism and shared cognition (Salomon & Perkins, 1998; Stahl, 2006), collaborative learning (CL) emphasizes that knowledge is shared among and sometimes co-constructed by two or more group members, mostly through social interactions (Dillenbourg, 1999) During this process, learners can make use of what is known as collective working memory (Kirschner, Paas, Kirschner, & Janssen, 2011) where group members can make use of each other’s working memory capacity to share the cognitive load imposed by a task, process the task related information more deeply, and construct higher quality schemas in their long-term memories than learners working individually. The effects of CSCL have been examined in these measures, and have been synthesized in several meta-analysis such as Borokhovski, Bernard, Tamim, Schmid, and Sokolovskaya (2016), Jeong, Hmelo-Silver, Jo, and Shin (2016) These meta-analyses have reported positive effects of CSCL on students’ learning outcomes and processes

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion