Using group metacognitive scaffolds in biology education to improve the collaborative problem-solving skills of high school students

The purpose of this paper is to integrate group metacognitive scaffolds into project-based learning (PBL) in biology classes to improve the collaborative problem-solving skills (CPS) of high-school students. The study designed and implemented four projects, 'Designing space meals for astronauts', 'Cell decryption', 'Blade carving' and 'The life course of the cell', based on the 10th-grade biology curriculum in China, and involved 27 Grade-10 students from a high school. The quasi-experimental repeated measure method was used to evaluate the students' improvement in CPS skills, with pre-, mid- and post-tests; classroom observation of the CPS process; various students' created products in groups and the group metacognitive scaffolds filled out by each group in the four projects. Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods were employed. The research findings show significant improvement in students' overall performance and three dimensions (the three dimensions are 'Establishing and maintaining shared understanding', 'Taking appropriate action to solve the problem' and 'Establishing and maintaining team organisation'), with more pronounced improvement between the mid-test and post-test than between the pre-test and mid-test. The findings imply that PBL using group metacognitive scaffolding is conducive to developing high-school students' CPS skills in biology learning.