Makiko Takenaka

Design Experiments in Japanese Elementary Science Education with Computer Support for Collaborative Learning: Hypothesis Testing and Collaborative Construction.

This paper reports design experiments on two Japanese elementary science lesson units in a sixth‐grade classroom supported by computer support for collaborative learning (CSCL) technology as a collaborative reflection tool. We took different approaches in the experiments depending on their instructional goals. In the unit ‘air and how things burn’, we designed the unit where groups of students engaged in building theories on ‘how a candle stops burning in a closed jar’. In the unit ‘characteristics of various solutions’, groups of students collaboratively constructed a pH scale as knowledge artefact. In both studies, the CSCL technology was implemented mainly for facilitating collaboration between groups. Results showed that: (1) students were more likely to engage in symmetric communication (i.e. between groups as well as within groups) in the second unit, and (2) they were also more idea‐centred and more frequently shared their ideas in the second unit. The results were discussed from the perspectives of the scientific practices students engaged in and task structure.

Changing Teachers’ Epistemological Perspectives: A case study of teacher–researcher collaborative lesson studies in Japan

Lesson study in Japan, the practice in which teachers work collaboratively and reflectively with colleagues on improving their classroom teaching, has recently attracted attention internationally as an effective means of teachers’ professional development. Although lesson study is very useful for helping new teachers join the profession and for teachers to develop pedagogical knowledge, its effectiveness is less clear when teachers have to understand new epistemologies for new forms of learning and teaching. This paper describes a variation of lesson study, called design study, which takes the concept further to involve teachers and researchers working together as a design team. Specifically it describes the development of an experienced classroom teacher through his participation in a design‐based research practice, tracing how he shifted his focus towards epistemological issues and successfully developed new pedagogical content knowledge. The paper describes how such a design‐based collaborative study might enrich teacher knowledge, and articulates possible factors that might contribute to it as a successful practice.

KEI-time traveler: visiting a past world with mobile phones to enhance learning motivation

KEI-Time Traveler is a system using commercially available phones equipped with GPS. It enables students to do fieldwork with a visit to a past environment from the corresponding location in the present world. Students experienced such fieldwork to visit the site of a landslide disaster in 1938. We evaluated the system and found that KEI-Time Traveler enhanced motivation and helped students learn about their local areas history.

Balancing virtual and real interactions in mobile learning

KEI-Time Traveller is a kind of virtual time machine that merely requires the use of commercially available GPS phones. In reality, KEI-Time Traveller shows graphical images of a virtual past scene within a given area as viewed from the current location and with arbitrary viewing angles. Users can virtually explore the past world using this system. We applied it to junior high school students, twice. They virtually visited a world of 1938, when a severe landslide disaster occurred, but the designs of interaction with the virtual past world differed between the two fieldwork trials. By comparing the results, we discuss the design of the interaction and its effects on the fieldwork.

Design experiments for integrating a CSCL technology into Japanese elementary science education

We designed CSCL-based science lessons for 4th and 6th grade. The CSCL technology we used was Knowledge Forum (KF), the second generation of CSILE software. In the first year, we designed the lesson in which KF was used as an extra communication tool. Goal-sensitive assessments for the lesson showed that students did not frequently discuss on the lesson concepts in a cognitive manner. The lesson design in the second year was revised by providing students with cognitive scaffolds so that they could more articulately discuss their thoughts as objects. Comparative analyses manifested that students in the second year were more engaged in science activities through social construction of their knowledge on KF. Design principles we found to be effective are discussed.