| Sumario: | Background: Virtual manipulatives (VMs) are increasingly adopted in inquiry activities. However, the effects of the ratio of mobile device‐based VMs to students and external scripts (a guiding structure for prompting group process) provision on group interaction has not been detailed. Objectives: This study proposed four different technology affordance conditions for collaborative inquiry learning: 1:1 device‐student ratio (one tablet per student) with external scripts, 1:m ratio (one tablet per group) with external scripts, 1:1 ratio without external scripts, and 1:m ratio without external scripts. The purpose of this study is to identify the effect of technology affordances on group behavioural patterns during collaborative inquiry learning. Methods: The research participants were 21 fifth‐grade students from 4 classes (totalling 130 students) in a public elementary school. Students' collaborative inquiry behavioural patterns were video‐recorded during three themed inquiry activities. To identify the behavioural patterns of groups, this study developed an action‐oriented coding scheme for collaborative inquiry learning emphasizing and coded student actions during cooperation. Through lag sequential analysis and dialog content analysis, the behavioural transition modes of groups were obtained. Results: The results show that device‐student ratios and external scripts affect behavioural patterns through resource coordination, information interaction, collaborative atmosphere, and task awareness. Implications: In mobile device‐support collaborative inquiry learning, the 1:m device‐student ratio yielded more exchanges to test and apply new constructions than that of the 1:1 ratio. External scripts were more applicable to the 1:m condition than to the 1:1 condition. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Virtual manipulatives are increasingly adopted in inquiry‐based learning.External scripts provided by instructors are scaffolds to facilitate collaboration.The amount and type of support offered to students affects group progress during collaboration. What this paper adds: Device‐student ratios could affect group behavioural patterns through resource coordination and information exchanges in collaborative inquiry learning.External scripts could affect collaborative learning atmosphere and task awareness of group members.The combination of video‐aided multimodal dialog analysis and behavioural transition analysis is a potential way to explore group behavioural patterns.Action‐oriented coding scheme can be used to identify collaborative inquiry characteristics during group interaction. Implications for practice and/or policy: Resource allocation of mobile devices and external support needs to be taken into account when design inquiry learning activities.When and how to give external scripts to students in different device‐student ratio conditions are important for the design of instructional intervention.
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