Learning Sciences

The role of different media in designing learning environments.

by Allan Collins

Collins, A., Neville, P., & Bielaczyc, K.  (2000). The role of different media in designing learning environments. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 11, 144-162.

As a broader array of communication tools is developed, designers of learning environments need a better understanding... more As a broader array of communication tools is developed, designers of learning environments need a better understanding of what kinds of communication each medium is best suited for. Each of the new media have different affordances and constraints. One of our principles for the design of learning environments is “Render unto each medium what it does best.” This paper is an attempt to state some of what we know about what different media are good for.

Children's Mechanistic Reasoning

by Paul Weinberg

Reasoning about mechanisms is one of the hallmarks of disciplined inquiry in science and engineering, but... more Reasoning about mechanisms is one of the hallmarks of disciplined inquiry in science and engineering, but comparatively little is known about its precursors and development. Children at grades 2 and 5 predicted and explained the motion of simple mechanical systems composed entirely of visible linkages (levers). Students' explanations of device behavior suggested four forms of knowledge: simple recognition of device components, noting of structural relations among components, construction of cause-effect rules derived by observation of regularities in device behavior, and identification of essential system components and interactions among components that accounted for cause–effect rules. Only a few children coordinated multiple essential components to constitute a mechanistic causal scheme. Mechanistic causal schemes, in turn, were associated with successful prediction of the output motion of a system. Device tracing via gesture and talk appeared to support this form of knowledge development, and hence may inform future instructional design.

Mäkitalo, Å. (forthcoming 2012). Learning to make a case in law school: Categorizing events and actions in legal discourse.

by Åsa Mäkitalo

To be published in Psicologia Culturale in a special issue on Context, culture and the law, edited by A Smorti, F. di Donato, J Bruner. 

Professional learning and the materiality of social practice

by Åsa Mäkitalo

Published in the Journal of Education and Work in a special issue on Reconceptualising Professional Learning in a Changing Society edited by T. Fenwick, M. Nerland and K Jensen

This article addresses professional learning as intrinsic to social practices. It takes its point of departure in a... more This article addresses professional learning as intrinsic to social practices. It takes its point of departure in a sociocultural notion of mediation and communication in human activity and addresses the constitutive nature of language and artefacts as material-semiotic tools in the social coordination of perspectives and action, meaning-making and gap-bridging
in professional work. The empirical examples are taken from different settings; an IT helpdesk team working in a multinational production company; vocational guidance officers working in a public employment office and from nurses at a rehabilitation ward in a hospital. The theoretical perspective is used when discussing these cases so as to display the
use of the core concepts and the dynamics of change which may be illuminated by the analytical approach. In the conclusion, specific aspects of the materiality of social practice relevant for the study of learning and knowing in professional work are made salient.

Noticing the Past to Manage the Future: On the Organization of Shared Knowing In IT-Support Practices

by Åsa Mäkitalo

Co-authored with Ann-Charlotte Eklund and Roger Säljö.

http://www.ewidgetsonline.com/dxreader/Reader.aspx?token=aa5512e9c8b944149e70154f63e4cc69&rand=1293582439&buyNowLink=&page=&chapter=

Digital technology is a generic element in the transformation of work practices through ways we communicate,... more Digital technology is a generic element in the transformation of work practices through ways we communicate, administrative procedures, the organization of production processes, and so on. IT helpdesk practices are obvious symptoms of this development. The overall aim of this empirical study is to document and analyze how an IT helpdesk team in a multinational company operates in its everyday practice, and how members develop and maintain collective and individual knowing. As collective knowing is established within a team working 24/7, local jargon and modes of communicating emerge which allow participants to take things for granted and smoothly coordinate their activities. Such jargon is, however, difficult to penetrate for outsiders and newbies. Settings characterized by implicit use of local semiotic tools present an interesting challenge to the study of learning and knowing. In this chapter, we also discuss this challenge and give an account of our research strategy to tease out critical elements in the teams ways of making things relevant.

Academic Numeracy in Life Science Learning: Challenging Perceptions

by Rosanne Quinnell

Quinnell R, Thompson R, LeBard R. 2012. Academic Numeracy in Life Science Learning: Challenging Perceptions. STEM Annual Conference 2012. The Higher Education Academy. United Kingdom. 12 Apr 2012 - 13 Apr 2012 Imperial College, London, UK.

While maths can be viewed as enabling learning in science and medicine, in reality we see students are bringing their... more While maths can be viewed as enabling learning in science and medicine, in reality we see students are bringing their maths anxiety with them to their studies. Our work focuses on dissecting the maths problem as it relates to teaching and learning in these so-called hard disciplines. We have been challenging the inertia of what we see as a stand off with students taking the view that they are unable to do maths and educators frustrated at their disengagement. We have found that the maths problem resonates with several pedagogical frameworks (e.g. Meyer and Land’s Threshold Concepts Framework, Perkins and Simmons’ four frames of understanding) and we have found these useful for unpicking where our students become disengaged. We have applied a number of interventions to assist student learning and are now using our findings to inform the design of an online diagnostic to more explicitly address dysfunctional stances that students adopt when asked to manipulate their quantitative data. Given the extent of the maths problem and the move to increase diversity in the Higher Education sector, we discuss how to enable students to shift to a more positive learning disposition.

Etude de la certitude du rappel au cours d'un apprentissage verbal

by Guy Tiberghien

Games-based learning

by Nicola Whitton

In Norbert M. Seel (Ed) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. New York: Springer.

Aydeniz, M., & Pabuccu, A. (2012). Understanding the impact of formative assessment strategies on first year university students’ conceptual understanding of chemical concepts. Necatibey Eğitim Fakültesi Elektronik Fen ve Matematik Eğitimi Dergisi (EFMED).

by Mehmet Aydeniz

Participating in science at home: Recognition work and learning in biology

by Heather Toomey Zimmerman

Zimmerman, H. T. (2012). Participating in science at home: The roles of recognition work and agency in science learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. dio: 10.1002/tea.21014. Early view online.

This article presents an analysis of the longitudinal consequences of out-of-school science learning with a conceptual... more This article presents an analysis of the longitudinal consequences of out-of-school science learning with a conceptual framework that connects the intentions of youth to their participation in science. The focus is on one girl's science activities in her home and hobby pursuits from fourth to seventh grade to create an empirical account of how youth gain access to scientific knowledge and science practices in informal learning environments. The analysis uses fieldnotes, videotape recordings, and transcripts centered on the epistemic, social, and material resources related to learning in biology. The focal participant of the study, Penelope, engaged with animal activities in her home and hobby pursuits in ways that overlapped scientific practice. She (1) engaged in observational inquiry, (2) used media to understand animal behavior, (3) tinkered with feeding to keep her animals healthy, and (4) manipulated her animals and animal-related artifacts to create routines and safe indoor habitats. Penelope used these four competencies to gain access to new science learning situations in school and afterschool settings. Yet, as she participated in science practices around animals, she sought to be recognized as uninterested in science. Instead, she used her talk and activities to be recognized in animal caretaking roles in the settings that mattered to her. Penelope's behavior of distancing herself from science while still seeking out experiences to learn about animal biology shows that recognition work is a complex negotiation between aspects of one's self and of science. Implications to theories are drawn related to science education and recognition work. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach

Learning Kinematics in Elementary Grades Using Agent-based Computational Modeling: A Visual Programming Based Approach.

by Pratim Sengupta

Sengupta, P., & Farris, A.V. (2012). Learning Kinematics in Elementary Grades Using Agent-based Computational Modeling: A Visual Programming Based Approach. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Interaction Design & Children.

Integrating computational modeling and programming with learning and teaching physics is a non-trivial challenge for... more Integrating computational modeling and programming with learning and teaching physics is a non-trivial challenge for educational designers. In this paper, ¬¬we attempt to address this challenge by presenting ViMAP, a new visual-programming language and modeling platform for learning kinematics, and its underlying design principles. We then report a study conducted with 3rd and 4th grade students which shows that using ViMAP, they were able to develop a) deep conceptual understandings of kinematics and b) relevant programming and computational modeling practices. We also identify how the design principles supported the development of these understandings and practices as students engaged in learning activities that integrated modeling, programming and physics.

Hybrid spaces for science learning: New demands and opportunities for research

by Ole Smørdal

Co-authored with Jim Slotta, Ingeborg Krange, Tom Moher, Francesco Novellis, Alessandro Gnoli, Brenda Lopez Silva, Michelle Lui, Alfredo Jornet, Cecilie F. Jahreie
Symposia for ICLS 2012

“Hybrid spaces for science learning” refers to the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and... more “Hybrid spaces for science learning” refers to the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. Learning science within hybrid spaces can be a fun, engaging, and reflective experience. Further, hybrid spaces are inherently social, facilitating dialogue and social exchange, as well as the construction of knowledge, paralleling the nature of contemporary science. This symposium brings together several research programs that address learning “across contexts,” that span classroom activities, museum visits, and engaging, embodied experience of science phenomena. We include an international set of presenters from Canada, USA and Norway, each engaged in design and empirical investigations of designs that blends conceptual learning with the development of inquiry skills and epistemological knowledge. Each paper presents the research context, method of design and evaluation, research progress, and science learning outcomes.

Contrasting the Use of Tools for Presentation and Critique: Some Cases From Architectural Education

by Oskar Lindwall

Co-authored with Gustav Lymer and Jonas Ivarsson, published in the International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 2009

This study investigates video recordings of design reviews in architectural education, focusing on how presentations... more This study investigates video recordings of design reviews in architectural education, focusing on how presentations and discussions of designs are contingent on the specific tools employed. In the analyzed recordings, three different setups are utilized: traditional posters, digital slide-show technologies, and combinations of the two. This range of different setups provides a set of contrasts that make visible the role of technologies in shaping the ways in which the reviews are conducted. The analysis is structured in three themes. First, we examine the sequential organization of digital presentations in relation to the spatial structure of poster-based presentations. Second, the different ways in which shared attention is established in digital, paper-based, and hybrid presentation practices are analyzed. Third, we address part-whole relations—how details in presented materials are put in relation to the overarching project or the presentation as a whole. Taken together, the analyses suggest that the detailed organization of the design review is transformed in subtle yet consequential ways through the introduction of digital slide-show technologies. These transformations are consequential not only locally, for the design review itself, but also for the instructive work that is accomplished through this practice. We conclude by discussing some implications for design, arguing that an increased awareness of how the practice is influenced by the different setups might be key for the proper adaptation of presentation technologies to particular purposes.

The Dark Matter of Lab Work: Illuminating the Negotiation of Disciplined Perception In Mechanics

by Oskar Lindwall

Co-authored with Gustav Lymer, published in the Journal of the Learning Sciences 2008

This study examines the practical work of a pair of students and an instructor using probeware in a mechanics lab. The... more This study examines the practical work of a pair of students and an instructor using probeware in a mechanics lab. The aim of the study is to describe and discuss a type of interactional sequence that we refer to as dark matter, the ordinary backdrop to the extraordinary sequences that are easily recognizable as clear-cut instances of learning. Although this work is downplayed in the research literature, describing it is critical to properly understanding lab work as an educational practice. With a focus on the negotiation of disciplined perception, we analyze a number of episodes wherein a pair of students and an instructor struggle with the construction and interpretation of a graph depicting a linear relationship between force and acceleration. We demonstrate an intimate interplay between how the students display their problems and understandings and how the instructor tries to make the subject matter content visible and thus learnable. The analyzed episodes are illuminating with regard to the analytical notion of disciplined perception as applied to graph interpretation; the cognitive and practical competencies involved in producing, recognizing, and understanding graphs in mechanics; and the interactive work by which these competencies are made into objects of learning and instruction.

Questions, Instructions, and Modes of Listening In the Joint Production of Guided Action: A Study of Student-Teacher Collaboration In Handicraft Education

by Oskar Lindwall

Co-authored with Anna Ekström and Roger Säljö, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research

This article concerns a central issue in education as an institutional activity: instructions and their role in... more This article concerns a central issue in education as an institutional activity: instructions and their role in guiding student activities and understanding. In the study, we investigate the tensions between specifics and generalities in the joint production of guided action. This issue is explored in the context of handicraft education—or more specifically, a teacher education program in sloyd. Handicraft is particularly interesting when analysing instructions, since the purposes of instructions are often dual: (1) to bring about a broad, instructionally relevant mode of understanding artefacts (including their origin, aesthetics, etc.), and (2) to guide manual action in the production of such artefacts. In the article, a detailed analysis of an instructional sequence, which includes the production of two distinct types of embroideries, is reported. The analysis sheds light on the role of educational examples in sloyd as well as on the related issue concerning the distinctive difference between the activities of listening to instructions as part of a lecture, on the one hand, and, on the other, listening to instructions in order to be able to accomplish a task.

Uses of “understand” in science education

by Oskar Lindwall

Co-authored with Gustav Lymer, published in the Journal of Pragmatics, 2011

For this study, thirty hours of video-recorded and transcribed interaction taken from a lab course in a teacher... more For this study, thirty hours of video-recorded and transcribed interaction taken from a lab course in a teacher education program have been examined. Throughout this material, utterances such as “I don’t understand” or “do you get it” are strikingly frequent. This has motivated us to investigate the positioning, use, and interactional significance of utterances that include “get it,” “understand,” or any of their conjugations. The investigated material is presented and organized into five themes: students requesting help from other students; students requesting help from teachers; students asking other students if they understand; uses of “understand” in the closing of a task; and teachers’ uses of “understand.” While the range of uses of “understand” is wide, it is interesting to note that there are some clear distributional patterns. An overwhelming majority of the investigated uses concerns the assignment, the purpose of the lab, or the subject matter content. In addition, they are often found in the closing and opening of task-based activities and instructional sequences. One can further note that the investigated uses of “understand” are constrained by different sets of rights and obligations for students and teachers.

Space and discourse interleaved: Intertextuality and interpretation in the education of architects

by Oskar Lindwall

Co-authored with Gustav Lymer and Jonas Ivarsson, published in Social Semiotics, 2011

This study examines a sequence of instructional work taken from the practice of critique in architectural education.... more This study examines a sequence of instructional work taken from the practice of critique in architectural education. In analyzing the ways in which one instructor assesses and interprets how a group of students have worked with references to other architects and to well-known buildings, the study provides a respecification of notions of interpretation and intertextuality as practical features of design work: design anticipates professional interpretation, and is thus prospectively oriented towards the retrospective ascription of intertextual meanings. The sequence revolves around highly ideologically charged sites. The instructional work around the use of references to these sites highlights the modes of architectural reasoning implicated in the competent handling of ideology in relation to aesthetic expression. Finally, the space of the critique itself is shown as a rich site for the reproduction of architectural knowledge, in which multiple spatial and disciplinary contexts are embedded through representation, discourse, and embodied practice.

Instruction-in-Interaction: The Teaching and Learning of a Manual Skill

by Oskar Lindwall

Co-authored with Anna Ekström, published in Human Studies 2012

This study takes an interest in instructions and instructed actions in the context of manual skills. The analysis... more This study takes an interest in instructions and instructed actions in the context of manual skills. The analysis focuses on a video recorded episode where a teacher demonstrates how to crochet chain stitches, requests a group of students to reproduce her actions, and then repeatedly corrects the attempts of one of the students. The initial request, and the students’ responses to it, could be seen as preliminary to the series of corrective sequences that come next: the request and the following attempts make it possible for the teacher to launch instructional sequences specifically designed and addressed to the students who need further guidance. In the interaction between the teacher and the novice student, the reasoned character of the instructed actions is not explained so much as installed and tuned. The materiality of the project makes it possible for the two parties to methodically and meticulously adjust their actions in accordance with each other, and towards the gradual realization of the aimed-for results. In connection to this, a number of issues pertaining to the reproducibility and recognizability of manual skills are raised: how instructions-in-interaction orient towards the progression of the skill rather than the interaction itself; how attempts by and mistakes of the instructed party provide grounds for further instruction; and, consequently, how instructions in the form of corrections build on the instructor’s continuous assessments of the instructed actions.

Teaching Theory Analogically: Using Music To Explain Criminological Theory

by Matt Hinds-Aldrich

PLEASE NOTE: This is only the first page of the article, for the full text please see the journal or contact me directly (mhinds-aldrich*at*annamaria*dot*edu) as I am happy to send you a full text copy. Here is the journal link: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10511253.2012.665934

There have been a number of articles recently advocating the use of nontraditional mediums to teach criminological... more There have been a number of articles recently advocating the use of nontraditional mediums to teach criminological theory. Many of these articles have advocated using music and/or music lyrics to illustrate and enliven the various theories taught in introductory theory courses. Despite the growing attention paid to teaching criminological theory, few, if any, discuss how to help students understand the more fundamental ontological question—what is “theory.” This article proposes an alternative pedagogical approach that draws upon students’ understanding of musical genres analogically to explain: (1) the historical development of the various theoretical approaches, (2) the historical, cultural and theoretical antecedents of the various approaches, and (3) how to identify the theoretical orientation(s) and influences in an unfamiliar text. Ultimately, this approach is intended to counter the overly compartmentalized and linear understanding of theory unintentionally brought on by the dynamics of teaching schedules, generic “theory” textbooks, computerized presentation software and testing methods.

Integrating Computational Thinking with K12 Science Education: A Theoretical Framework.

by Pratim Sengupta

Citation:
Sengupta, P., Kinnebrew, J., Biswas, G., and Clark, D. (2012). Integrating Computational Thinking with K12 Science Education: A Theoretical Framework. In: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

Computational thinking (CT) draws on concepts that are fundamental to computing and computer science, however, as an... more Computational thinking (CT) draws on concepts that are fundamental to computing and computer science, however, as an approach, it includes practices, such as problem representation, abstraction, decomposition, simulation, verification, and prediction that are also central to modelling, reasoning, and problem solving in many scientific and mathematical disciplines. Recently, arguments have been made in favour of integrating programming and CT with K-12 curricula. In this paper, we present a theoretical investigation of key issues that need to be considered for integrating CT with K-12 science. We identify the synergies between pro- gramming and CT on one hand, and scientific expertise on the other. We then present a critical review of literature on educational computing, and propose a set of guidelines for designing learning environments in science that can jointly foster the development of computational thinking with scientific expertise. Finally, we describe the design of a learning environment that supports CT through modelling and simulation to help middle school students learn physics and biology.