Individual contributions in student-led collaborative learning: Insights from two analytical approaches to explain the quality of group outcome

•Individual contributions in student-led collaborative learning were examined•Two independent analytical methods were used independently and jointly•Individual contributions to socially shared metacognitive regulation varied•High performing groups adopted flexible, multiple content-focused roles•Low performing group played performance-oriented roles and regulated procedures

This study explored the characteristics of individual contributions to student-led productive collaborative learning as it takes place in real time. Two independent analytical methods grounded in different research traditions, metacognitive regulation and role analysis, were used independently and jointly to identify patterns of individual participation to collective processes within groups that differed in quality of their joint outcome. The findings provide consolidated evidence of the importance of socially shared metacognitive regulation (SSMR) in productive collaborative learning, and complementary evidence of qualitative differences in focus of individual contributions to SSMR within higher and lower performing groups. The analysis of active participatory roles to the group effort revealed individuals' flexible adoption of multiple roles, especially content-focused roles in higher performing groups, and less flexible roles focused on procedural matters in lower performing groups. Combining the meaningful findings obtained from SSMR and role analysis supports the value of researching individual and group level processes simultaneously.