The role of instructional scaffolding in AI-supported

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the stated research gap and future work of the source papers, classified as general, spanning 3 journals. Those papers have been cited 9 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 3 representative gaps

• From Problem-Solving to Reflection: Activating Diverse Metacognitive Skills in Mathematics (2026) · International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education · cited 1× · doi

  The study identifies a gap in the understanding of how metacognitive skills are activated in students through problem-solving tasks and reflective prompts. The study highlights the need for further research on the role of reflective prompts in metacognitive development. The study suggests that prior studies have not fully explored the relationship between problem-solving tasks and metacognitive skills.

  generalstated research gap
  Keywords: study identifies gap understanding metacognitive skills activated students
• Exploring the interactive effects of task complexity and metacognitive scaffolding on students’ performance in collaborative programming (2026) · Metacognition and Learning · doi

  This study provides empirical insights into how task complexity and metacognitive scaf- folding interact to influence different learning outcomes in students’ collaborative pro- gramming. The findings indicate that task complexity and metacognitive scaffolding have significant interaction effects on computational thinking tendency and learning motivation, but not on metacognitive awareness or programming learning achievement. However, the study focused solely on middle school students, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other educational levels. Future research could explore the effects of task complexity and metacognitive scaffolding across different K–12 seg- ments to examine potential developmental differences. Additionally, this study employed a purely quantitative methodology without incorporating qualitative data. A mixed-methods approach in future research could provide a more comprehensive understanding of how task complexity and metacognitive scaffolding shape students’ collaborative programming learning, offering richer insights into their cognitive processes, problem-solving strategies, and learning experiences. Another limitation concerns the fixed sequence of programming tasks in the present study. Both groups completed tasks in the same order (low, medium, and high complexity), which may introduce potential order effects and cumulative learning advantages. Because the intervention group received metacognitive scaffolding in earlier tasks, their improved performance in later, more complex tasks may partly reflect cumulative preparation or learning advantages rather than solely the immediate effects of scaffolding under higher task complexity. Future studies may adopt counterbalanced or randomized task sequences to better disentangle immediate scaffolding effects from cumulative advantages across tasks of increasing complexity. 1 3Exploring the interactive effects of task complexity and metacognitive… 27 Page 22 of 25 Funding This study was supported in part by the National Science and Technology Council of the Republic of China [NSTC 112-2410-H-216-002, NSTC 113-2410-H-216-001-MY2] and the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science Project of the People’s Republic of China [24YJA880096]. Data availability The data in this study can be accessed by sending request e-mails to the corresponding author.

  generalfuture workevidence 5/5
  Keywords: complexity task metacognitive learning scaffolding effects tasks students programming future cumulative advantages insights different collaborative
• Scaffolding Generative AI as a Tutor: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Learning Outcomes and Motivational, Cognitive and Metacognitive Processes (2026) · Education Sciences · cited 8× · doi

  The role of instructional scaffolding in AI-supported settings is underexplored. There is a lack of understanding about how scaffolding influences learning outcomes and motivational, cognitive, and metacognitive processes during AI-tutored learning. The study aims to address this gap by examining the effect of scaffolding on learning outcomes and motivational, cognitive, and metacognitive processes.

  generalstated research gapevidence 5/5
  Keywords: role instructional scaffolding ai-supported settings underexplored there lack

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