Roy D. Pea

Addressing the Challenges of Inquiry-Based Learning through Technology and Curriculum Design.

Inquiry experiences can provide valuable opportunities for students to improve their understanding of both science content and scientific practices. However, the implementation of inquiry learning in classrooms presents a number of significant challenges. We have been exploring these challenges through a program of research on the use of scientific visualization technologies to support inquiry-based learning in the geosciences. In this article, we describe 5 significant challenges to implementing inquiry-based learning and present strategies for addressing them through the design of technology and curriculum. We present a design history covering 4 generations of software and curriculum to show how these challenges arise in classrooms and how the design strategies respond to them.

The Social and Technological Dimensions of Scaffolding and Related Theoretical Concepts for Learning, Education, and Human Activity

I amperhapsnot theonlyonewhofeels that theconceptof scaffoldinghasbecomeso broad in its meanings in the field of educational research and the learning sciences that it has become unclear in its significance. Perhaps the field has put too much of a burden on the term, and we need a more differentiated ontology to make progress. Perhaps scaffolding has become a proxy for any cultural practices associated with advancing performance, knowledge, and skills whether social, material, or reproducible patterns of interactivity (as in software systems) are involved. This is surely too much complexity to take on at once. Given these burdens at the level of a scientific account of learning by the individual, I feel it is premature to be extending scaffolding considerations by metaphorical extension to the level of a whole classroom of learnersoreven toacultural level, asDavisandMiyake (this issue) suggest in their introductory essay. I first see whether I can garner some clarifications and leverage from uses of the term scaffolding for specific instances and classes of its uses by individual learners (where the articles in this issue focus their attention). As with many such concepts that are felt to have useful power in theoretical and practical schemes, it will be worthwhile to do some historical excavation, identify and circumscribe the early uses and roots of the concept, and then determine THE JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES, 13(3), 423–451 Copyright

Conducting Video Research in the Learning Sciences: Guidance on Selection, Analysis, Technology, and Ethics

Focusing on expanding technical capabilities and new collaborative possibilities, we address 4 challenges for scientists who collect and use video records to conduct research in and on complex learning environments: (a) Selection: How can researchers be systematic in deciding which elements of a complex environment or extensive video corpus to select for study? (b) Analysis: What analytical frameworks and practices are appropriate for given research problems? (c) Technology: What technologies are available and what new tools must be developed to support collecting, archiving, analyzing, reporting, and collaboratively sharing video? and (d) Ethics: How can research protocols encourage broad video sharing and reuse while adequately protecting the rights of research participants who are recorded?

Computational Thinking in K–12 A Review of the State of the Field

Jeannette Wing’s influential article on computational thinking 6 years ago argued for adding this new competency to every child’s analytical ability as a vital ingredient of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning. What is computational thinking? Why did this article resonate with so many and serve as a rallying cry for educators, education researchers, and policy makers? How have they interpreted Wing’s definition, and what advances have been made since Wing’s article was published? This article frames the current state of discourse on computational thinking in K–12 education by examining mostly recently published academic literature that uses Wing’s article as a springboard, identifies gaps in research, and articulates priorities for future inquiries.

Language-Independent Conceptual “Bugs” in Novice Programming:

This article argues for the existence of persistent conceptual “bugs” in how novices program and understand programs. These bugs are not specific to a given programming language, but appear to be language-independent. Furthermore, such bugs occur for novices from primary school to college age. Three different classes of bugs—parallelism, intentionality, and egocentrism—are identified, and exemplified through student errors. It is suggested that these classes of conceptual bugs are rooted in a “superbug,” the default strategy that there is a hidden mind somewhere in the programming language that has intelligent interpretive powers.

A walk on the WILD side: how wireless handhelds may change CSCL

Designs for CSCL applications usually presume a desktop/laptop computer. Yet future classrooms are likely to be organized around Wireless Internet Learning Devices (WILD) that resemble graphing calculators or Palm handhelds, connected by short-range wireless networking. WILD learning will have physical affordances that are different from todays computer lab, and different from classrooms with 5 students per computer. These differing affordances may lead to learning activities that deviate significantly from todays images of K-12 CSCL activities. Drawing upon research across a range of recent handheld projects, we suggest application-level affordances around which WILD-based CSCL has begun to organize: (a) augmenting physical space, (b) leveraging topological space, (c) aggregating coherently across all students, (d) conducting the class, and (e) act becomes artifact. We speculate on how CSCL research may consequently evolve towards a focus on kinds of systemic coupling in an augmented activity space.

Distributed Multimedia Learning Environments: Why and How?

Abstract We outline the societal prospects and business opportunities for much more extensive use of interactive multimedia technologies (IMT) connected through telecommunications to create distributed multimedia learning environments (DMLE). A theoretical framework is provided with a distinctive communications perspective on learning emerging from research in the cognitive and social sciences. A major consequence of this communication emphasis is the special need for rich communication technologies to support highly interactive teaching and learning activities, especially those at a distance but even within a classroom or school. Examples of existing projects using IMT for remote learning communications are among the most dramatic examples of these new possibilities. Based on these foundations, we first depict a vision of IMT for schools that establishes the kinds of DMLE designs that appear from research to offer promising improvements. We then characterize how current educational spending trends and ed...

CHILDREN'S MENTAL MODELS OF RECURSIVE LOGO PROGRAMS*

Children who had a year of Logo programming experience were asked to think-aloud about what brief Logo recursive programs will do, and then to predict with a hand-simulation of the programs what the Logo graphics turtle will draw when the program is executed. If discrepancies arose in this last phase, children were asked to explain them. A prevalent but misguided “looping” interpretation of Logo recursion was identified, and this robust mental model persisted even in the face of contradiction between what the program did when executed and the childs predictions for what it would do.

Trajectories from today's WWW to a powerful educational infrastructure

Two previous Research News and Comment articles in Educational Researcher have examined the potential impact of the World Wide Web (web) in education. Owston (1997) offers a optimistic view of potential benefits of the today’s web, utilizing a framework that emphasizes: (a) making learning more accessible; (b) promoting improved learning; and (c) containing costs. Fetterman (1998) reviews the tools currently available on the web (such as search, video conferencing, and file sharing) and suggests potential uses among educational researchers. Although these articles offer valuable advice about today’s web capabilities, both authors acknowledge that the web is changing rapidly. They do not provide a sense of where the web is going, and how its trajectory of development may more fully meet educational needs. Such prospective information about emerging web technologies is important for the educational research community, and it is our intention to briefly highlight key trajectories of web development for learning communities. We recently hosted a workshop on “Tools for Learning Communities” under the auspices of the NSF-funded Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT, which is pronounced like “silt”), bringing together 125 leading researchers and developers from a balanced mix of 50 institutions, including universities, nonprofit organizations, corporations and schools. For example, corporate participants included IBM Global Education, Apple Computer, Netscape, Coopers-Lybrand, NetSchools, and Electric Schoolhouse, LLC as well as many smaller firms. Academic and non-profit participants included researchers from the four CILT partner institutions, SRI International, UC Berkeley, Vanderbilt University, and Concord Consortium, as well as organizations, universities and high schools from all over North America. The innovative format of this workshop encouraged rapid information exchange, followed by brainstorming about educational issues and opportunities, and concluded with the formation of cross-institutional teams to seek joint innovation. Over the course of two days, the participants generated a wealth of ideas about the limitations of today’s web, its near-term trajectories, and

A STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROGRAMMING ABILITY AND THINKING SKILLS IN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

This article reports on a year-long study of high school students learning computer programming. The study examined three issues: 1) what is the impact of programming on particular mathematical and reasoning abilities?; 2) what cognitive skills or abilities best predict programming ability?; and 3) what do students actually understand about programming after two years of high school study? The results showed that even after two years of study, many students had only a rudimentary understanding of programming. Consequently, it was not surprising to also find that programming experience (as opposed to expertise) does not appear to transfer to other domains which share analogous formal properties. The article concludes that we need to more closely study the pedagogy of programming and how expertise can be better attained before we prematurely go looking for significant and wide reaching transfer effects from programming.