Scaffolding peer collaborative problem solving: a qualitative systematic review

Abstract

Peer Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) can positively influence learning anddevelopment, in different domains and at different levels of education. Studying collaborationamong adolescents is relevant for educational practice since it helps identify the conditions underwhich collaboration might be productive as well as the ways teachers could support students’ CPSin education. The aim of this systematic review was to identify and systematize research findingson training and scaffolding modalities enabling adolescents to engage in productive CPS. FollowingPRISMA guidelines we searched PsycInfo, WoS and ERIC databases and selected 5256 publishedabstracts in English. Six researchers screened the titles and abstracts of all identified papers (2researchers per abstract) and selected 160 fully published papers for reflexive thematic analyses.Among 160 selected papers, there were 110 provided data on adult scaffolding or the contributionof teacher/researcher support. The results revealed that the quality of cooperation training itselfwas described in 17 papers (15.4%), while scaffolding was a much more common topic in theselected research (N = 78; 70.9%). We also selected papers that included both training andscaffolding (N = 13; 11.8%). Regarding the impact of this kind of support on collaborative problemsolving, the majority of published papers reported positive effects (N = 60, 53.6%) and only a fewof them found its effects to be negative (N = 7, 6.3%). The remaining 44 papers (40%) did notanalyse an impact of training or scaffolding. Our thematic analyses found that in efforts tocontribute to successful CPS, adults (teachers/researchers) can moderate peer interaction in threeways, by focusing on either cognitive processes (N = 82; 75%), group discussions (N = 73; 66%), orclassroom management (N = 23; 21%). All characteristics that emerged in this review will bediscussed and concluding remarks will be focused on educational implications.