Progress of peer collaborative problem solving and the role of teachers in STEM classes: a comparison of groups with high and low prior knowledge with epistemic network analysis

We aimed to examine the development of collaborative problem solving (CPS) across multiple time points in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) project-based course, with a focus on the interactions between students’ cognitive and social-emotional CPS behaviors and their teacher’s behaviors. The behaviors of two selected student groups (representing high and low prior knowledge) and their teacher were recorded and transcribed across six class sessions using a researcher-developed CPS coding framework. Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) was adopted to generate detailed developmental network graphs that illustrated the interactions among coded behaviors, the strength of behavioral connections, and the frequency of behaviors. Developmental trends in network centroids and subtractive networks were compared between the high and low prior-knowledge groups over the six sessions. The results show that the STEM teacher was a significant source of shared knowledge and was particularly associated with students’ help-seeking behaviors in CPS. Despite receiving the same STEM instruction, students with different levels of prior knowledge demonstrated distinct cognitive and social-emotional interaction patterns, underscoring the importance of continuous teacher monitoring and support tailored to individual differences throughout the STEM learning process. This paper provides practical suggestions based on these findings.