How GenAI Mentor Configurations Shape Early Collaborative Dynamics: A Classroom Comparison of Individual and Shared Agents

TL;DR

This study compares how shared versus individual AI mentors influence collaborative regulation and interaction patterns in classroom problem-solving, revealing that AI configuration significantly shapes group dynamics and teacher intervention.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on how different AI configurations affect collaborative processes and regulation in classroom settings, highlighting AI as a structural design variable.

Findings

Shared AI promotes convergence and coordinated reasoning.

Individual AI leads to more exploratory, fragmented interactions.

Teacher intervention increases with individual AI configurations.

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly embedded in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), yet little empirical research has unpacked how different configurations of AI participation reshape collaborative processes. This study investigates how GenAI configuration shapes collaborative regulation in authentic classroom settings. Two eighth-grade classes engaged in small-group creative problem-solving under two conditions: a shared-AI configuration, in which each group interacted with a single AI mentor, and an individual-AI configuration, in which each student accessed a personal AI instance. Using multi-layer discourse coding combined with lag sequential analysis (LSA) and ordered network analysis (ONA), we examined interaction distribution, AI-student coupling, shared regulation processes, and teacher orchestration. Results reveal distinct regulatory dynamics across configurations. Shared AI access promoted convergence-oriented collaboration, with stronger alignment of shared regulatory states and more coordinated group-level reasoning. In contrast, individual AI access distributed support across learners, producing more exploratory and evaluative cycles but also more fragmented interaction patterns, accompanied by increased teacher intervention to manage divergence. These findings suggest that AI configuration functions as a structural design variable that reorganizes the regulatory ecology of classroom collaboration.