The Impact of Role Assignment on Students’ Social-Cognitive Engagement in K-12 Collaborative Learning: A Network Analysis Approach

Collaborative learning has become a widely adopted pedagogical model in K-12 education, yet ensuring active participation of all learners remains a persistent challenge. Role assignment is regarded as a promising strategy to promote engagement by encouraging learners to take responsibility in group tasks. This study explores the impact of role assignment on students’ social-cognitive engagement in collaborative learning within an information technology course. Sixty middle school students participated in the study, with 30 assigned to collaborative learning with specific roles and 30 engaging in group learning without role assignment. Dialogue audio and video data were collected throughout the collaborative activities and analyzed using social and cognitive network analysis to capture patterns of interaction and knowledge construction. The results indicate that role assignment significantly enhances students’ social-cognitive engagement and that learners in different roles exhibit distinct patterns of engagement. These findings provide empirical support for role assignment as an effective strategy to foster student participation and meaningful knowledge building in technology-enhanced classrooms.