Gaming/Virtual Environments

MoDa: Designing a Tool to Interweave Computational Modeling with Real-world Data Analysis for Science Learning in Middle School

Coordinating modeling and real-world data is central to building scientific theories. This paper examines how a complementary focus on modeling and data contributed to 8th grade students’ learning of mechanisms underlying wildfire smoke spread in MoDa, a web-based environment that integrates computational modeling side-by-side with real-world data for comparison and validation. Epistemic network analysis of student responses in pre-post tests revealed a shift from primarily macro-level explanations to explanations that integrated macro and micro-level explanations of the phenomenon.

Author/Presenter
Aditi Wagh

Tamar Fuhrmann

Adelmo Antonio da Silva Eloy

Jacob Wolf

Engin Bumbacher

Paulo Blikstein

Michelle Wilkerson

Year
2022
Short Description

Coordinating modeling and real-world data is central to building scientific theories. This paper examines how a complementary focus on modeling and data contributed to 8th grade students’ learning of mechanisms underlying wildfire smoke spread in MoDa, a web-based environment that integrates computational modeling side-by-side with real-world data for comparison and validation.

Exploring the Potential of an Online Suite of Practice-Based Activities for Supporting Preservice Elementary Teachers in Learning How to Facilitate Argumentation-Focused Discussions in Mathematics and Science

This study explored the use of a three-part suite of practice-based activities -- one- and two-player online simulations, an avatar-based simulation, and a virtual teaching simulator—for supporting preservice teachers in learning how to facilitate argumentation-focused discussions in elementary mathematics and science. We share findings from analysis of survey data examining four elementary teacher educators’ perceptions about using these activities within their respective elementary methods courses.

Author/Presenter

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2022
Short Description

This study explored the use of a three-part suite of practice-based activities -- one- and two-player online simulations, an avatar-based simulation, and a virtual teaching simulator—for supporting preservice teachers in learning how to facilitate argumentation-focused discussions in elementary mathematics and science.

Eliciting Learner Knowledge: Enabling Focused Practice Through an Open-Source Online Tool

Eliciting and interpreting students’ ideas are essential skills in teaching, yet pre-service teachers (PSTs) rarely have adequate opportunities to develop these skills. In this study, we examine PSTs’ patterns of discourse and perceived learning through engaging in an interactive digital simulation called Eliciting Learner Knowledge (ELK). ELK is a seven-minute, chat-based virtual role play between a PST playing a “teacher” and a PST playing a “student” where the goal is for the teacher to find out what the student knows about a topic.

Author/Presenter

Griffin Leonard

Jamie N. Mikeska

Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue

Adam V. Maltese

Giancarlo Pereira

Garron Hillaire

Rick Waldron

Rachel Slama

Justin Reich

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2022
Short Description

Eliciting and interpreting students’ ideas are essential skills in teaching, yet pre-service teachers (PSTs) rarely have adequate opportunities to develop these skills. In this study, we examine PSTs’ patterns of discourse and perceived learning through engaging in an interactive digital simulation called Eliciting Learner Knowledge (ELK). ELK is a seven-minute, chat-based virtual role play between a PST playing a “teacher” and a PST playing a “student” where the goal is for the teacher to find out what the student knows about a topic.

“Unnatural How Natural It Was”: Using a Performance Task and Simulated Classroom for Preservice Secondary Teachers to Practice Engaging Student Avatars in Scientific Argumentation

Facilitating discussions is a key approach that science teachers use to engage students in scientific argumentation. However, learning how to facilitate argumentation-focused discussions is an ambitious teaching practice that can be difficult to learn how to do well, especially for preservice teachers (PSTs) who typically have limited opportunities to tryout and refine this teaching practice.

Author/Presenter

Jamie N. Mikeska

Calli Shekell

Jennifer Dix

Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2022
Short Description

Facilitating discussions is a key approach that science teachers use to engage students in scientific argumentation. However, learning how to facilitate argumentation-focused discussions is an ambitious teaching practice that can be difficult to learn how to do well, especially for preservice teachers (PSTs) who typically have limited opportunities to tryout and refine this teaching practice. This study examines secondary PSTs’ perceptions and engagement with a science performance task—used within an online, simulated classroom consisting of five middle school student avatars—to practice this ambitious teaching practice.

MindHive: An Online Citizen Science Tool and Curriculum for Human Brain and Behavior Research

MindHive is an online, open science, citizen science platform co-designed by a team of educational researchers, teachers, cognitive and social scientists, UX researchers, community organizers, and software developers to support real-world brain and behavior research for (a) high school students and teachers who seek authentic STEM research experiences, (b) neuroscientists and cognitive/social psychologists who seek to address their research questions outside of the lab, and (c) community-based organizations who seek to conduct grassroots, science-based research for policy change.

Author/Presenter

Suzanne Dikker

Yury Shevchenko

Kim Burgas

Kim Chaloner

Marc Sole

Lucy Yetman-Michaelson

Ido Davidesco

Rebecca Martin

Camillia Matuk

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2022
Short Description

MindHive is an online, open science, citizen science platform co-designed by a team of educational researchers, teachers, cognitive and social scientists, UX researchers, community organizers, and software developers to support real-world brain and behavior research for (a) high school students and teachers who seek authentic STEM research experiences, (b) neuroscientists and cognitive/social psychologists who seek to address their research questions outside of the lab, and (c) community-based organizations who seek to conduct grassroots, science-based research for policy change.

Professional Noticing as Student-Centered: Pre-service Teachers’ Attending to Students’ Mathematics in 360 Video

Teachers’ professional noticing has been described as transitioning from descriptions of general pedagogy to analysis of students’ mathematical procedures and conceptual reasoning. Such a shift is described as a transition towards more student-centered noticing. In the present study, we used screen recordings of pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) 360 video viewing to examine the relationship between where and what PSTs’ looked at and what they attended to in writing.

Author/Presenter
Karl W. Kosko

Maryam Zolfaghari

Jennifer L. Heisler

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2022
Short Description

Teachers’ professional noticing has been described as transitioning from descriptions of general pedagogy to analysis of students’ mathematical procedures and conceptual reasoning. Such a shift is described as a transition towards more student-centered noticing. In the present study, we used screen recordings of pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) 360 video viewing to examine the relationship between where and what PSTs’ looked at and what they attended to in writing.

Preservice Teachers’ Focus in 360 Videos: Understanding the Role of Presence, Ambisonic Audio, and Camera Placement

Immersive 360 videos are increasingly being used in pre-service teachers (PST) education. There is preliminary evidence that this technology may benefit future educators’ focus and attention to classroom settings and events. However, more analytical efforts are needed to better understand its potential impact on reported focus of attention (RFA) among future educators. This article addresses this gap by presenting the findings of a study on 360 videos that involved 92 PSTs.

Author/Presenter

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2022
Short Description

Immersive 360 videos are increasingly being used in pre-service teachers (PST) education. There is preliminary evidence that this technology may benefit future educators’ focus and attention to classroom settings and events. However, more analytical efforts are needed to better understand its potential impact on reported focus of attention (RFA) among future educators. This article addresses this gap by presenting the findings of a study on 360 videos that involved 92 PSTs.

Using the COVID-19 Pandemic to Create a Vision for XR-based Teacher Education Field Experiences

If there was a bright side to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly related to education, it was the massive and rapid introduction of educational technologies to scaffold teaching and learning. Most notably, within teacher education, this included extended reality (XR) technologies to supplement or replace face-to-face field experiences. With the pandemic turning endemic, and with preK-12 schools returning to traditional modalities, there is a danger that the successes of virtual field experiences may be lost.

Author/Presenter

Richard E. Ferdig

Karl W. Kosko

Enrico Gandolfi

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2022
Short Description

This article presents a vision for 2025 to implement low cost and effective extended reality (XR) technologies to supplement teacher education field experiences, regardless of if and when another global or local crisis occurs (e.g., pandemic, war, weather). In doing so, empirical and theoretical research is presented that argues for teacher educators to seek out and employ more immersive representations of practice that take advantage of the perceptual capacity of XR.

Vygotskian Hybridizing of Motion and Mapping: Learning About Geometric Transformations in Block-based Programming Environments

Research on geometric transformations suggests that early learners possess intuitive understandings grounded in motion metaphors, transitioning to mappings. The processes through which students transition between these two conceptions are not fully understood. We propose that Vygotskian hybridizing (related to Vygotsky’s articulation of everyday and scientific concepts) may provide a lens for thinking about the relationship between these conceptions.

Author/Presenter

Jesús E. Hernández-Zavaleta

Corey Brady

Sandra Becker

Douglas B. Clark

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2023
Short Description

Research on geometric transformations suggests that early learners possess intuitive understandings grounded in motion metaphors, transitioning to mappings. The processes through which students transition between these two conceptions are not fully understood. We propose that Vygotskian hybridizing (related to Vygotsky’s articulation of everyday and scientific concepts) may provide a lens for thinking about the relationship between these conceptions.

Longitudinal Clustering of Students’ Self-Regulated Learning Behaviors in Engineering Design

It is vital to develop an understanding of students' self-regulatory processes in the domains of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) for the quality delivery of STEM education. However, most studies have followed a variable-centered approach, leaving open the question of how specific SRL (Self-regulated Learning) behaviors group within individual learners. Furthermore, little is known about how students' SRL profiles unfold over time in STEM education, specifically in the context of engineering design.

Author/Presenter

Shan Li

Guanhua Chen

Wanli Xing

Juan Zheng

Charles Xie

Year
2020
Short Description

It is vital to develop an understanding of students' self-regulatory processes in the domains of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) for the quality delivery of STEM education. However, most studies have followed a variable-centered approach, leaving open the question of how specific SRL (Self-regulated Learning) behaviors group within individual learners. Furthermore, little is known about how students' SRL profiles unfold over time in STEM education, specifically in the context of engineering design. In this study, we examined the change of students’ SRL profiles over time as 108 middle school students designed green buildings in a simulation-based computer-aided design (CAD) environment