Collaboration scripts

Collaboration scripts structure the collaboration process by guiding the interacting partners through a sequence of interaction phases with designated activities and roles. Scripts are expected to promote learning by prompting cognitive, metacognitive and social processes that might otherwise not occur, i.e. students are more likely to traverse useful learning paths than in unscripted collaboration. For example, the script prompts interacting partners to engage in activities like posing questions, providing explanations, and giving feedback.

Dillenbourg and Jermann (2006) describe different core scripts, i.e. schemata lying at the heart of any particular collaboration script. They distinguish between jigsaw, conflict and reciprocal script approaches.

Dillenbourg, P. & Jermann, P. (2006). Designing integrative scripts. In F. Fischer, I. Kollar, H. Mandl &, J. Haake, Scripting computer-supported communication of knowledge. Cognitive, computational, and educational perspectives (pp. 259-288). New York: Springer.