Sean Brophy

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.

nanoHUB.org: Advancing Education and Research in Nanotechnology

In 2002, the National Science Foundation established the Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN), a network of universities supporting the National Nanotechnology Initiative by bringing computational tools online, making the tools easy to use, and supporting the tools with educational materials. Along the way, NCN created a unique cyberinfrastructure to support its Web site, nanoHUB.org, where researchers, educators, and professionals collaborate, share resources, and solve real nanotechnology problems. In 2007, nanoHUB.org served more than 56,000 users from 172 countries. In this article, the authors share their experiences in developing this cyberinfrastructure and using it, particularly in an educational context.

Software for managing complex learning: Examples from an educational psychology course

Inquiry-based instruction including problem-, project-, and case-based methods often incorporate complex sets of learning activities. The numerous activities run the risk of becoming disconnected in the minds of learners and teachers. STAR.Legacy is a software shell that can help designers organize learning activities into an inquiry cycle that is easy to understand and pedagogically sound. To ensure that classroom teachers can adapt the inquiry activities according to their local resources and needs, STAR.Legacy was built upon four types of design principles: learner centered, knowledge centered, assessment centered, and community centered. We describe how a STAR.Legacy constructed for an educational psychology course helped preservice teachers design and learn about effective inquiry-based instruction.

When Computer Technologies Meet the Learning Sciences: Issues and Opportunities

Abstract This article explores how insights from the learning sciences can guide the effective use of computer technologies to promote learning and how these technologies make new types of learning opportunities possible. The discussion is organized to provide three illustrations of how the introduction of new technologies can have “ripple effects” that influence many different aspects of the teaching and learning processes. We discuss these examples from the perspective of a framework for thinking about teaching and learning based on principles from the 1999 book by Bransford, Brown, and Cocking, How People Learn. Finally, we explore how rapid advances in technology both require and support changes in how we as researchers and teachers do our work.

Toward a Learning Technologies knowledge network

The National Science Foundation-funded Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT) is designed to be a national resource for stimulating research and development of technology-enabled solutions to critical problems in K-14 science, math, engineering and technology learning. The Center, launched at the end of 1997, is organized around four themes identified as areas where research is likely to result in major gains in teaching and learning, and sponsors research across disciplines and institutions in its four theme areas. CILT brings together experts in the fields of cognitive science, educational technologies, computer science, subject matter learning, and engineering. It engages business through an Industry Alliance Program and is also training postdoctoral students. CILTs founding organizations are SRI Internationals Center for Technology in Learning, University of California at Berkeley (School of Education and Department of Computer Science), Vanderbilt Universitys Learning Technology Center, and the Concord Consortium. Through its programs, CILT seeks to reach beyond these organizations to create a web of organizations, individuals, industries, schools, foundations, government agencies, and labs, that is devoted to the production, sharing and use of new knowledge about how learning technologies can dramatically improve the processes and outcomes of learning and teaching. This paper describes the rationale and operations of the Center, and first-year progress in defining a set of CILT partnership projects with many other institutions that came out of our national theme-team workshops.

Constructing shareable learning materials in bioengineering education

Innovations in learning sciences and technology are opening new opportunities for designing and implementing effective learning materials that can be shared between bioengineering instructors. The successful reuse of instructional materials depends on how easy it is for an instructor to adapt the materials with a similar intent of the original author. Many resource libraries are emerging that provide a searchable database of sharable, Web-based instructional materials. The materials range from lesson plans and teaching techniques to text, video, and interactive simulation resources. These digital libraries are valuable services for teachers and students to access information and participate in a community of science, mathematics, and technology. The VaNTH (Vanderbilt University; Northwestern University; University of Texas at Austin; and Health, Science and Technology at Harvard/MIT) Engineering Research Center (ERC) is exploring a similar goal to design and test learning materials for bioengineering education and construct a technology infrastructure that supports the reuse of these materials in pedagogically appropriate ways. For VaNTH, using a consistent framework that describes the instructional intent of the materials is a critical factor in helping instructors envision how to adapt the materials to their own instruction. Therefore, VaNTH has defined a design process that capitalizes on the insight of learning sciences and best practices in engineering education to construct learning materials that follow a consistent but flexible instructional model.

Designing effective Laboratory courses in electrical engineering: Challenge-based Model that reflects engineering process

In electrical engineering programs, physical Laboratory courses should enable students to apply theory to design, to synthesize and analyze circuits and systems, and gain practical hands-on skills and knowledge required for their future career. However, students often have difficulty applying electrical theory to problem solving tasks, such as those encountered in lab experiments; therefore, an alternative approach to lab instruction is desirable. A study at Vanderbilt University explored the potential of organizing electrical engineering labs around challenges. A learning model called Software Technology for Assessment and Reflection (STAR) Legacy was adopted in designing the lab learning process. The model combines problem-solving challenges and instructional resources with Web-based technology. This paper describes the structure of the innovative challenge-based lab design, and presents student and instructor evaluations of this design.

First-year engineering students with dyslexia: Comparison of spatial visualization performance and attitudes

Student diversity in higher education tends to focus on gender, ethnicity/race, and socio-economic status. However, these factors do not address cognitive diversity. Cognitive diversity, within the context of this study, refers to the varying ability of brain functions such as reasoning and memory, excluding persons with a developmental disability. Students with learning disabilities (LD), specifically dyslexia, contribute to this cognitive diversity. This study aims to initiate scholarly research on academic success factors for First-Year Engineering (FYE) students with dyslexia. FYE student performances on the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test-Rotations (PSVT-R) and Student Attitudinal Success Instrument (SASI) have been found to be predictors of academic success in engineering. A preliminary analysis of entering FYE student performance on the PSVT-R and SASI is conducted for three populations: students with dyslexia, students with a LD, and students without a LD. The anticipated findings will support the inclusion of cognitive ability, with an emphasis on LD and dyslexia, in FYE engineering diversity programs.

Work in progress — NEESacademy as a cyber-enabled learning experiences for K-16 earthquake engineering and science education

NEESacademy is under development to support more effective organization, assessment, implementation, and dissemination of learning experiences related to earthquake science and engineering. One source of content is the education and outreach products developed by NEES researchers, but anyone can contribute resources. Using well documented instructional design approaches, a framework for defining and planning the content, assessment, and design-based implementation of learning experiences has been developed. This framework illustrates how a large array of existing individual learning activities can be grouped thematically to provide more comprehensive learning experiences for learners. NEESacademy is built on the HUBzero technology that provides users with tools to easily create richer content and reuse that same content for high impact learning experiences. Pilot programs are underway to engage K-16 educators in testing and developing content.

Identifying student communication strategies involving spatial information

Spatial ability and effective communication are considered important skills in the engineering and technology fields. However, little research has been done to assess how engineering or technology students communicate spatial information. Effective spatial information can help engineers and technologists describe their design, as well as how parts of a design are assembled into a final shape. In this study, researchers aimed at identifying strategies used between two peers, referred to as a dyad, as they communicate information to transform a 3D virtual model into a physical scale model. The focus of analysis is on the metacognitive strategies dyads used to identify difficulties in communication. A quasi-experimental design was used to observe the processes used by 6 dyads of graduate students from engineering technology and technology fields. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were used to identify common communication patterns and determine when participants decided on a change of communication strategy. Results show that only two out of six dyads reproduced the model correctly. Successful teams developed an assembly strategy prior to building and used task monitoring to check for misplaced pieces. Less successful teams relied more on repeated instructions to manage miscommunication.