Structural empowerment in online scaffolding through Problem-Based learning
Providing online scaffolding in problem-based learning (PBL) has been espoused as empowering students’ learning experiences. Nevertheless, little research has investigated how students are empowered and their problem-solving competency (PSC) improved when receiving scaffolding from multiple scaffold...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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2022
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| Summary: | Providing online scaffolding in problem-based learning (PBL) has been espoused as empowering students’ learning experiences. Nevertheless, little research has investigated how students are empowered and their problem-solving competency (PSC) improved when receiving scaffolding from multiple scaffolders on social media in problem-solving activities. This research was anchored on the Structural Empowerment (SE) Theory with the notion that students would be psychologically empowered (denotes PE for psychological empowerment) when granted SE. Thus, this research aims to determine how students are empowered and their PSC is improved via online scaffolding provided by multiple scaffolders on Facebook. 84 final-year baccalaureate management students participated in a simultaneous within-subject experimental design. A PBL teaching approach was used, accompanied by a pre and post-test experiment to investigate the students' PSC. Students' experiences were then validated via a questionnaire upon the completion of the experiment. The Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test validated that the students’ PSC improved after being scaffolded by the scaffolders. While, the SEM-PLS results revealed that only the SE provided by the instructor could bridge the connection between SE provided by the industry experts and peers and enhance the PE of the students. However, SE provided by the peers created reverse and unintended effects on PSC. The result further revealed that the students’ PSC improved when they were psychologically empowered. Additionally, PE failed to mediate all relationships between the SE provided by all scaffolders (peers, industry experts, and the instructor) and PSC. Overall, the above results added to the theoretical contribution in which, not all scaffolders could elicit the same degree of SE, PE and PSC. Thus, confirming that PBL indeed enriched the learning experience and improved students' mastery of higher-order thinking skills at varying degrees when multiple scaffolders were included. Methodological and practical implications were also discussed, with several recommendations proposed for educators who wish to empower and scaffold students on social media in problem-solving activities. |
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