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Can Students Collaboratively Use Hypermedia to Learn about Science? The Dynamics of Self-and Other-regulatory Processes in the Classroom

This classroom study examined the role of low-achieving students' self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviors and their teacher's scaffolding of SRL while using a Web-based water quality simulation environment to learn about ecological systems. Forty-nine 11th and 12th grade students learned about ecology and the effects of land use on water quality by collaboratively using the RiverWebSM water quality simulation (WQS) during a two-week curriculum on environmental science. The students' emerging understanding was assessed using pretest and posttest scores. Students' self-regulatory behaviors and teacher's scaffolding of SRL were assessed through an analysis of their discourse during several collaborative problem-solving episodes. Findings indicate that students learned significantly more about ecology after working collaboratively with the WQS. However, these learning gains were quite small and were related to the self-regulatory behaviors observed by the dyads and teacher's scaffolding and instruction. Analyses of video data indicate that a large amount of time was spent by the dyads and teacher in using only a few strategies, while very little time was spent on planning, monitoring, and handling task difficulties and demands. Further analysis revealed that both the dyads and teachers were using low-level strategies (e.g., following procedural tasks, evaluating the content, searching, and selecting informational sources in the WQS) to learn about the topic. Our results provide a valuable initial characterization of the complexity of self- and co-regulated learning in a complex, dynamic, technology-enhanced, student-centered science classroom. We will discuss how the results will be used to inform the design of computers as MetaCognitive tools designed to foster students' learning of conceptually challenging science topics.