Reflection Assignment as a Tool to Support Students' Metacognitive Awareness in the Context of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

The present study explores the potential of a reflection assignment as a tool for supporting master's degree students' metacognitive skills in the context of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). The research question (RQ) is formulated as follows: How does a regularly submitted reflection assignment support the development of students' individual metacognitive awareness in the context of CSCL? The empirical data is a text corpus (7878 words) extracted from individual students' (N = 13) reflection assignments (N = 65) submitted during one semester. Qualitative content analysis was employed to analyze the data. The results demonstrate that by the end of the course, the students significantly advanced their understanding of themselves as CSCL learners and developed a deeper understanding of collaborative learning strategies. The discussion suggests that complementing the collaboration scripting approach with a regularly occurring reflection assignment can contribute to students' awareness of the implemented learning strategies and their effectiveness in the context of CSCL. However, it is important to investigate what kind of guiding questions would be optimal for students to reflect effectively.