This study evaluated the effects of instructional scaffolding interventions (ISI) on preservice teachers' knowledge structures (e.g., concept maps) and short essay responses over time. Participants were 60 preservice teachers from two universities who were enrolled in one of three introductory psychology courses. One course was used as the experimental group, and the other courses became the comparison groups. ISI interventions consisted of a series of guided informational feedback sessions, following concept mapping and writing activities. The interventions were initiated in the experimental group to support learning that would enable higher levels of short essay responses, particularly among lower achieving students. Short essay question sheets were used to assess participants' written expressions of conceptual understanding of motivation theory. A three-group, multivariate repeated measures design was used to compare the knowledge structure and short essay responses of students in both conditions. Seven criteria were used to judge the quality of each concept map. Results indicated that students' declarative and procedural knowledge, as well as metacognitive skills, developed. The expert-novices had a more developed knowledge of subject matter content, they knew how to represent their knowledge when engaged in a concept mapping task, and they were more aware of the task demands and the audience when engaged in a writing task. The appendixes present examples of concept maps and short essay responses, examples of students' concept maps with other students' feedback comments, and examples of collaborative concept maps. (SM)