Introduction How can innovative online discussion tools improve science learning? We investigate the design and impact of the SpeakEasy discussion tool on eighth graders understanding of the nature of colour. This topic was taught solely in the online class discussions. We investigate the impact of online asynchronous discussion in general and two formats for contributed comments in particular on student knowledge integration. Each discussion started with contributed comments articulating the views on the nature of the colour held by Kepler and Newton. In one set of online discussions we attributed these comments to Kepler and Newton thus dramatizing the historical `debate' between these two scientists. In the other set of discussions, these same comments were contributed by online guides using a narrative text format. The contributed comment formats both contrasted historical and normative views of the topic. The narrative format resembled accounts of the nature of colour in

The NSF-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, which was launched at the end of 1997, is organized around four themes its leadership has identified as areas where research is likely result in major gains in teaching and learning. The Center sponsors research across disciplines and institutions in its four theme areas. It brings together experts in

Abstract: In this paper, we discuss the design and study of a guidance and prompting system for a technology-based learning environment used in science classrooms. We focus briefly on how the tool has evolved through several years of iterative refinement, how the tool has been used by students in different curricular contexts for different epistemic practices, and how we as researchers can learn about students ' learning and cognition through use of the affordances of such software environments. In particular, scaffolding in the form of prompts and hints are investigated for supporting causal explanations of scientific evidence (or argumentation) and promoting more general reflection. The results imply that both kinds of scaffolds support students ' knowledge integration in important ways. The paper concludes with the claim that the guidance software helps students identify ways to improve their understanding by helping students think individually and collaboratively to provide alternative examples, thought experiments, and counter-evidence for consideration, and by providing a place to make their own thinking about these ideas visible and explicit. The paper also makes the broader claim that educational design studies such as the two reported here serve a unique role in identifying designed approaches that best support student learning while also informing our understanding of individual and social cognition in typical educational contexts.

This paper describes a program of research designed to understand how knowledge-sharing and learning can be supported in virtual communities. To conduct this research, we propose the development of a series of knowledge sharing tools and procedures followed by a rigorous evaluation of the use of these tools in real virtual community environments. The paper starts with a brief examination of relevant theory in knowledge management and learning. This leads to a comprehensive set of research questions. To investigate these questions, we next propose a set of tools for supporting collaboration, knowledge sharing and learning for distributed communities. Evaluation is also a vital element of this research.

Abstract: In this paper we describe a way of looking at how people learn from computer interfaces. In particular, we describe the concept of a socially relevant representation, or a representation of social context information (as opposed to domain knowledge information). We describe known or hypothesized mechanisms by which such representations might facilitate learning, and discuss implications for the design of knowledge media. Keywords: Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), human-computer interaction, cognition, instructional design, knowledge media, representations. Introduction: context as a clue to understanding This paper explores the role that representations of social context information can play in learning. Consider the following experience. Hoadley was a graduate student in an interdisciplinary doctoral program in science education. The first year students came from many different backgrounds in the sciences, and were preparing for an exam to cover readings from a first-year seminar in cognition and education. For many, the papers

Abstract. This paper describes the iterative design of a web-based collaborative workspace used in educational practice, called WebReports. The system’s unique feature is that it allows participants to discuss mathematical and scientific concepts using programmed animated and interactive models of their ideas. Rather than focusing on the specific features of the collaboration tool, we analyze it as part of a constructionist activity system. We describe the context in which the system was developed and used and compare our approach to previous research in the field. Further, we then present two scenarios which demonstrate the system in action. Following that, we attempt to map our cases to an activity theory framework. We highlight several issues in the process of the systems ’ development, where the contradictions between the WebReports system and other elements in the activity system shaped its design, and comment on several issues which go beyond the activity theory framework.

This is a revision of the chapter on the same topic that appeared in the first edition of the Handbook, published in 1995. In the intervening years, a great many changes have occurred in cognitive theory, and its perceived relevance to Education has been challenged. As a participant in, and indeed as a promulgator of some of those changes and challenges, my own ideas and opinions

Abstract. We present an approach to designing intelligent tutoring systems, termed the Difficulty Factors Approach. In this approach, the designer investigates, at each iteration of the design cycle, which skills and concepts are difficult for students, and what factors underlie those difficulties. We show that this approach complements existing design principles, producing data that helps designers apply principles in context. We also show that by continuing to investigate student difficulties throughout the design process, it is possible to discover difficulty factors initially obscured by other difficulty factors. We give an example of the application of the Difficulty Factors Approach in the context of the development of a cognitive tutor lesson on scatterplots.

Our goal in this paper is to examine the nature of expertise in software development and then to analyze the components of process education necessary to promote its development. This analysis includes three aspects of expertise: (a) declarative knowledge ("knowledge that"), (b) procedural knowledge ("how to knowledge"), and (c) metacognitive knowledge (self-monitoring, agency, reflection). These "flavors" of knowing play an integral role in software development. Traditional education with its emphasis on textbooks and lectures as its primary pedagogical tools can teach declarative knowledge, but that knowledge is not automatically connected with doing. The major impact of process education has been to provide a more effective learning environment that focuses on the development of procedural knowledge. It has become clear that procedural and declarative knowledge alone are not sufficient for the development of expertise. Students need to learn how to reflect on both the problem at han...

Undergraduate engineering reform efforts to better integrate math, science and engineering courses have recently been conducted at the University of California at Berkeley. Since 1998, faculty from the mathematics, physics, and engineering departments at Berkeley have collaborated to restructure first year and lower division courses. Several changes were made to specific courses to improve students integrative understanding of calculus and the physical sciences, and to emphasize applications to engineering. Various data have been collected to investigate the impact the reforms had on student learning, as well as to gain insight into students experiences during their undergraduate engineering career. Interviews were conducted with engineering students and faculty to garner feedback about integration efforts and students perceptions of the curriculum. This paper describes the interview project and outlines the interpretive framework we established for the analysis of the interview data. Initial analysis suggests that students have difficulty understanding lower division math and physics courses because of the following reasons; 1) the pedagogical approach is inadequate for properly integrating and reinforcing the material, and 2) student perceptions and beliefs about the disciplines conflict with the goals of integration.