Spontaneous Scientific Argumentation and Socially Shared Metacognitive Regulation of High‐ and Low‐Performing Small Groups in Virtual Collaborative Science Learning

ABSTRACT The present study examines the interconnectedness of spontaneous scientific argumentation and socially shared metacognitive regulation (SSMR) during a collaborative inquiry in which students are tasked with working in a virtual learning environment for marine biological issues. From a larger dataset of 39 groups, four small student groups were selected for this specific study. Of the selected groups, two were high‐performing and two were low‐performing based on their collaborative outcomes. Moreover, students' videotaped discussions were analyzed in terms of argumentation and metacognitive regulation during three phases (planning, experimenting, and presenting). Finally, an in‐depth video analysis was conducted, which was supported by qualitative excerpts that were transcribed. The results of the present study demonstrate that metacognitive regulation and argumentation spontaneously co‐occur; in particular, SSMR appeared to co‐occur with high‐level argumentation. Moreover, SSMR was shown to be related to deeper argumentation and, thus, to the discussion of the high‐performing group. Finally, the results hinted that students socially regulate their learning when they are asking questions related to a scientific topic, even though this was not shown to be statistically significant. To summarize, the interrelation of scientific argumentation and metacognitive regulation is under‐researched and, therefore, the present study attempts to extend the understanding of this relationship and the co‐occurrence of argumentation and metacognitive regulation.