Cited by 168Innovative Teaching and Learning MethodsVisual and Cognitive Learning ProcessesScience Education and Pedagogy

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 47 of the 47 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 5 of the 53 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Scaffolding Student Understanding in Small-Group Work: Students’ Uptake of Teacher Support in Subsequent Small-Group Interaction

Open access
van de Pol, Janneke, Mercer, Neil, Volman, Monique·2019·Journal of the Learning Sciences

Abstract

Providing contingent or adaptive support (i.e., scaffolding) is effective. Yet it is unclear how it promotes students’ learning. In this mixed-methods study, we investigated to what extent the effect of contingent support for students’ learning is mediated by the extent to which students take up teachers’ support in subsequent small-group work. We define contingent support as support that contains adapted levels of teacher control or regulation based on the learner’s level of understanding. To explore the research question, we analyzed all interactions from 35 lessons of 7 secondary social studies teachers and 7 small groups of students. Logistic multilevel mediation analyses showed that the likelihood of students formulating accurate answers during small-group work was higher when students applied the teacher’s support in subsequent small-group work (as opposed to ignoring that support). However, the contingency of a teacher’s support did not affect students’ uptake or the accuracy of their answers. Additional qualitative analyses showed that students’ uptake of contingent support was sometimes hampered by untimely fading of the support. Moreover, we found that contingent support that was then gradually faded was the most effective in fostering students’ uptake of a teacher’s support.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Students’ application of teacher support predicted greater accuracy in subsequent small-group work, but contingency of support did not predict uptake and no mediation was found. Qualitative follow-up suggested contingent support was taken up when faded in a timely manner, whereas untimely fading accompanied ignored support.

Key findings

  • Uptake positively predicted accuracy: a 1-unit increase in uptake (from copy/repeat to apply) was associated with a 0.25 increase in the log odds of moving to a higher accuracy category.
  • Contingency of support was not related to students’ uptake, and there was no indirect effect of contingency on accuracy via uptake (Hypotheses 1 and 3 not supported).
  • Relevance of support predicted uptake: a 1-unit increase in relevance (from not relevant to relevant) was associated with a 6.37 increase in the log odds of moving from repeat/ignore to apply.
  • In qualitative analysis, 5 of 7 sets with contingent support followed by ignored relevant support showed untimely fading; in 7 sets where contingent support was applied, no premature fading was found.

Methods

  • Mixed-methods study analyzing transcripts of all interactions from 35 lessons (five consecutive lessons per teacher) of 7 secondary social studies teachers and 7 target groups of four students each (N = 28), in an EU project; 13,316 interaction turns were coded.
  • Coded contingency using the contingent shift framework, uptake (ignore, copy/repeat, apply), accuracy of students’ answers, on-task turns, and relevance; interrater Krippendorff’s alphas ranged from .73 to .87.
  • Ordinal logistic multilevel regression with mediation in Mplus 7.4; Level 1 was student-student episode, Level 2 teacher-student episode, Level 3 lesson; controlled for average student understanding during teacher-student interaction and relevance of support, with teacher dummy variables for nesting.

Limitations

  • Stated: the final dataset was relatively small despite 13,316 coded turns, with only 7 teachers and 28 students; uptake was measured only in student-student interactions directly following a teacher-student interaction, not later or remote uptake; future research should examine joint effects of teacher support and within-group interaction quality and teacher- versus student-initiated interactions.
  • Evident: the design is observational, so the mediation model cannot establish causal effects; the sample is limited to eighth-grade social studies in lower secondary vocational education within one EU project, limiting generalizability.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/10508406.2018.1522258

Cites

47 of 47 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

15 Own result · 13 Own interpretation · 12 Not checked yet · 9 Own method · 8 No full text of the sources · 7 Sources not found · 4 No basis given · 2 Partly supported · 2 Not supported · 1 Supported · accuracy not yet measured

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 25
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 18
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 2
34 of 34
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    It is unclear how scaffolding promotes students' learning.

    “Yet how scaffolding promotes students' learning remains unclear.”
    “Yet it is unclear how it promotes students' learning.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    It is unclear how contingency affects student learning.

    “Yet it is unclear how contingency affects student learning.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    No study has investigated students' delayed uptake of the content of a teacher's support after the teacher has left a group and how this affects students' learning.

    “However, to our knowledge, no study has investigated students' delayed uptake of the content of a teacher's support (e.g., an explanation of the meaning of a particular concept) after the teacher has left a group of students and how this affects students' learning.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    It is less clear how teachers can support students' learning in the setting of small-group work.

    “Yet it is less clear how teachers can support students' learning in the setting of small-group work (e.g., Webb, 2009).”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Mirroring of teachers' behavior or helping style catalyzes students' interaction.

    “Such mirroring is assumed to catalyze the students' interaction.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The link between student uptake and student learning has only been addressed and studied in the context of individual student learning.

    “The link between student uptake and student learning has only been addressed and studied in the context of individual student learning.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The link between student uptake and student learning works similarly in small-group work as in individual student learning.

    “Yet we do not have reason to assume that it works differently in small-group work.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The small-group setting is especially suited for studying students' uptake because students often externalize their thinking in small-group work.

    “This small-group setting is especially suited for studying students' uptake, as students often externalize their thinking in small-group work.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The study is the first to investigate the role of uptake in the scaffolding process, linking teacher-student interactions to subsequent small-group student interactions.

    “The study reported here is the first to investigate the role of uptake in the scaffolding process, linking teacher-student interactions to subsequent smallgroup student interactions.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Accuracy of students' final answers is a valid indicator of their understanding during small-group work.

    “We determined students' understanding during small-group work by coding the accuracy of the answers that students provided within each of the on-task studentstudent episodes.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Contingency of support measured as the percentage of contingent three-turn sequences within an episode is a valid measure of contingent support.

    “Level 2 was the teacher-student episode level and contained the variable contingency of support (a continuous variable representing the percentage of contingent three-turn sequences relative to the total number of three-turn sequences within an episode).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Relevance of support coded as whether it could possibly be relevant to the task is a valid measure of relevance.

    “The support was coded as relevant (1) if it could possibly be relevant to the task under discussion within the student-student episode.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Repeating teachers' explanations only results in an illusion of understanding, as does ignoring teacher support.

    “The code”
13 of 13

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Show all 47 references

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Cohen, E. G. (1994). Designing groupwork (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
  2. 10.1207/student1532690xci1704_2 · DOI
  3. Webb, N. M., & Farivar, S. (1999). Developing productive group interaction in middle school. In A. M. O’Donnell & A. King (Eds.), Cognitive perspectives on peer learning (pp. 117–149). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  4. Wittwer, J., Nückles, M., Hübner, S., & Herbert, M. (2005). How tutors plan and students learn from adaptive explanations: A think-aloud study in online tutoring. In J. Wittwer & M. Nückles (Chairs), Adaptation in tutoring and collaborative learning. Nicosia, Cyprus: Symposium conducted at the 11th biennial conference of the European Association for research on Learning and Instruction.

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Metadata

Authors
van de Pol, J., Mercer, N., & Volman, M.
Affiliations
  • Department of EducationUtrecht University
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • University of Amsterdam (NL)
Venue
Journal of the Learning Sciences
Published
2018-11-26
Volume
28
Issue
2
Pages
206-239
ISSN
  • 1050-8406 (ISSN-L)
  • 1532-7809
OpenAlex
W2902394069
Cited by
168
References
47
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 2
FWCI
20.11
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of the Learning Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes
  • Social Sciences › Education › Science Education and Pedagogy
Keywords
scaffolding, adaptive assistance, small group work, teacher control, secondary school social studies, student understanding, small group interaction

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