Collaborative Scripts: A Scaffold to Enhance Research Self-efficacy and Intrinsic Motivation in Undergraduate Research Projects

Abstract

Using experimental design, this study attempted to identify how collaboration may increase students' Research Self-Efficacy (RSE), promote Intrinsic motivation (IM) for doing research and IM for writing a research paper, and improve their academic writing during undergraduate research projects. A questionnaire that measures RSE and IM for doing research and writing a research paper was developed and applied twice to both the experimental group and the control group. To scaffold students’ during the collaborative work, a collaborative script was developed and introduced to the experimental group only while the control group worked individually. Students' research papers were evaluated using an analytical rubric. To analyze data, a One-Way MANOVA and an Independent Samples t-test were conducted. The use of a collaborative script demonstrably enhanced participants' Research Self-Efficacy (RSE), and their Intrinsic Motivation (IM) for both writing and conducting research. This suggests that collaborative learning approaches can be highly effective in fostering confidence and engagement among students undertaking research projects. Furthermore, the collaborative script group significantly outperformed the individual learning group in terms of organization, language accuracy, and mechanics in their research papers. This highlights the potential of collaborative writing to improve the technical aspects of academic writing. The lack of a significant difference in content scores, however, indicates that collaborative learning may not directly enhance the generation of novel ideas, suggesting a need for complementary strategies to bolster content development in such instructional contexts. These results fill a critical gap and display the bidirectional relationship of collaboration between RSE and IM in undergraduate EFL programs. They confirm the need for conducting further research to probe into this area and its implications for educational practice.