Chandra Hawley Orrill

Design-Based Research: An Emerging Paradigm for Educational Inquiry

The authors argue that design-based research, which blends empirical educational research with the theory-driven design of learning environments, is an important methodology for understanding how, when, and why educational innovations work in practice. Design-based researchers’ innovations embody specific theoretical claims about teaching and learning, and help us understand the relationships among educational theory, designed artifact, and practice. Design is central in efforts to foster learning, create usable knowledge, and advance theories of learning and teaching in complex settings. Design-based research also may contribute to the growth of human capacity for subsequent educational reform.

Building Technology-based, Learner-Centered Classrooms: The Evolution of a Professional Development Framework

This study examined issues in supporting middle-school teachers to become more learner centered when implementing computer-based, workplace simulations in their classrooms. Specifically, this report focuses on a participant observation study of two teachers to develop and evolve a framework for professional development. The framework was developed based on prior professional development efforts, information on developing learner-centered classrooms, and data about teacher change. The framework included five key pieces: (a) reflection, (b) proximal goals, (c) collegial support groups, (d) one-on-one feedback, and (e) support materials for the teachers. The foundation for the framework was a belief that change is individual and needs to be supported in context and over time.The data included field observations as the teachers used the simulations in their classrooms made by the author and three outside observers, and interviews with each teacher following her use of the simulation program.During the four-month study, the original framework evolved in response to the data collected. The final version of the framework focuses on the professional developer working with teachers to develop reflective skills. Proximal goals became a focusing tool for reflection after teachers had begun to develop their reflective skills. The interplay between reflection and proximal goals was enhanced by outside resources, one-on-one feedback, and collegial group meetings.

Supporting Online PBL: Design Considerations for Supporting Distributed Problem Solving

This study considers how four groups of education graduate students worked in a distributed problem-based learning (PBL) environment using an asynchronous threaded discussion tool. The analyses consider how the students were able to interact with each other using the tool and how they worked together to define the problem and identify key issues to explore. The outcomes include some design considerations for tools to support these activities as well as insight about how students may work together to solve a problem in a distributed environment.

Measuring Middle Grades Teachers' Understanding of Rational Numbers with the Mixture Rasch Model

We report the development of a multiple-choice instrument that measures the mathematical knowledge needed for teaching arithmetic with fractions, decimals, and proportions. In particular, the instrument emphasizes the knowledge needed to reason about such arithmetic when numbers are embedded in problem situations. We administered our instrument to a convenience sample of 201 middle grades teachers and used the mixture Rasch model to uncover 2 distinct subgroups. Further analyses of the test data and follow-up interviews with 16 of the same teachers revealed that group membership provided 2 important pieces of information. First, teachers in Group 1 understood the role of multiplying or dividing by 1 in standard computation procedures much better than teachers in Group 2. Second, teachers in Group 1 identified appropriate referent units for numbers and appropriate parts-of-parts of quantities more consistently across situations than teachers in Group 2. Capturing such information extends recent advances in measuring mathematical knowledge for teaching.

Educational technology research in postsecondary settings: Promise, problems, and prospects

WHILE EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS in higher education have grown dramatically during the past 20 years, significant disagreements exist as to their effectiveness and impact. Advocates and critics tend to advance competing positions, but little evidence of technology’s impact derived through disciplined inquiry has been presented in support of either position. The research that has been conducted has rarely been shared across the diverse disciplines represented in postsecondary settings, so little collective impact has been possible. In this paper, we introduce evidence related to the promise and performance of educational technology, identify problems and issues inherent in educational technology research, and propose a working framework for studying the learning effects of, and with, technology.

Examining the design features of a communication-rich, problem-centred mathematics professional development

ABSTRACT While there is considerable scholarship describing principles for effective professional development, there have been few attempts to examine these principles in practice. In this paper, we identify and examine the particular design features of a mathematics professional development experience provided for middle grades teachers over 14 weeks. The professional development was grounded in a set of mathematical tasks that each had one right answer, but multiple solution paths. The facilitator engaged participants in problem solving and encouraged participants to work collaboratively to explore different solution paths. Through analysis of this collaborative learning environment, we identified five design features for supporting teacher learning of important mathematics and pedagogy in a problem-solving setting. We discuss these design features in depth and illustrate them by presenting an elaborated example from the professional development. This study extends the existing guidance for the design of professional development by examining and operationalizing the relationships among research-based features of effective professional development and the enacted features of a particular design.

Connection Making: Capitalizing on the Affordances of Dynamic Representations Through Mathematically Relevant Questioning

In this chapter, teacher questioning is considered. Specifically, this chapter explores the ways in which questioning can help students connect the representations available in SimCalc to the mathematical ideas of interest. This exploratory study considers four teachers who used questioning differently while each teaching the same lesson. The findings suggest that the teachers who ask questions that engage students in connection making may be better supporting student learning. Implications for future research are discussed.