The effects of teacher-led class interventions during technology-enhanced science inquiry on students’ knowledge integration and basic need satisfaction

•Teacher-led class interventions did not lead to higher learning gains.•Teacher-led class interventions prove to lower feelings of competence frustration.•Low-achievers express higher competence frustration in the low-structured condition.•No ‘over-scripting’ effect was found regarding high-achievers.•CSCL blended with interventions at the plenary level is suggested.

This study investigated the effects of two differently designed classroom scripts that guided the teacher-led interventions during the courses of the WISE Climate Change project. 168 students from 10 classes were randomly assigned to either the high-structured condition (teacher interventions on group level and on class level) or the low-structured condition (only teacher interventions on group level). Effects were measured on students' knowledge integration and students’ need satisfaction. The results did not provide evidence that the high-structured condition leads to higher learning gains, yet it was found that pausing the group work during computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) to provide structure and feedback by the teacher at a whole-classroom plenary level significantly lowered the feelings of competence frustration. Especially low prior knowledge students expressed higher competence frustration in the low-structured condition. These findings suggest to blend CSCL with teacher-led class interventions to optimize the learning environment.