This chapter presents a cognitive perspective on scripting collaborative learning. The following section presents different meanings of the term script as it is used in cognitive psychology and in collaborative learning contexts. The section after that deals with specific cognitively-oriented activities that several lines of research have shown enhance learning during interaction. Next, four illustrative scripted collaboration approaches that use some or all of these activities are examined to reveal the cognitive, metacognitive, and socio-cognitive processes their scripts are designed to induce in learners; the use each script makes of roles, activities, and sequence of activities in structuring collaborative learning is also analyzed. The issue of what individuals learn during collaboration and how they learn it is a thread that runs throughout the chapter. A final discussion of the potential for learners to self-regulate their collaborative learning revolves around differences in approaches to scripting collaboration and the related question of when (or even if) use of a script can be discontinued once roles and scripts are internalized.

Research on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is a multidisciplinary field located at the intersection of cognitive psychology, computer science, and education. Yet, the different epistemological and theoretical backgrounds of these disciplines often make fruitful exchange between them difficult. CSCL urgently needs to develop and use boundary concepts that can bring these fields closer together to improve cumulative research and development of computer-supported learning environments. Scripting Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning focuses on one term with the potential to become a real boundary concept in CSCL—"scripting". Scripting Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, which has collected advanced script approaches, demonstrates the opportunities for using synergy to apply the script concept between perspectives and interdisciplinary CSCL approaches to scripting. This volume represents the state of the art of research on scripting computer-supported collaborative learning and provides a starting point for the development of a common understanding of scripting in CSCL. Research on collaboration scripts has an extraordinary potential for advancing the multidisciplinary endeavor of CSCL research and this book provides a rich basis for further exploring and realizing this potential. As such, it will be a valuable resource for research, development, and teaching.