Untitled

Ching, Cynthia Carter; Kafai, Yasmin B.; Marshall, Sue

doi:10.1023/a:1009425024600

Cited by 28 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, many educational software applications over the last two decades aimed to capitalize simultaneously on the potential for digital media to educate and entertain, only to discover that learning and play activities involve distinct genres of participation that are remarkably resistant to integration or change (Ito 2008). At the same time, school settings configured for computing, employing large machines in distant labs or isolated "computers in the corner" classroom arrangements, are incompatible with the activity structures of both traditional instruction and learners' organic forms of collaborative and independent engagement with digital media (Ching, Kafai, and Marshall 2000;Wang and Ching 2003;Ching et al 2006). For technological innovations to support meaningful transformations in teaching and learning, they must be compatible with and build bridges between the daily instructional practices of teachers and the informal digital experiences of learners.…”

Section: Q1mentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Digital and Mathematical Practices across Contexts: A Manifesto for Mobile Learning

White¹,

Booker²,

Ching³

et al. 2011

International Journal of Learning and Media

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Q1mentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Digital and Mathematical Practices across Contexts: A Manifesto for Mobile Learning

White¹,

Booker²,

Ching³

et al. 2011

International Journal of Learning and Media

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Student collaboration has been a focus of research on project-based learning for many years. The literature contains analyses of successful and synergistic collaborative designs (Roth, 1995), rich student discussions (Brown & Campione, 1994), gender differences in collaborative tasks (Ching, Kafai, & Marshall, 2000), and long-distance student collaborations via telecommunications (Songer, 1996). Barron (2000Barron ( , 2003 in particular has recently tackled the critical topic of how student groups begin the inquiry process and collaboratively determine strategies for project-based work.…”

Section: Review Of Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Pedagogy: Student Collaboration and Reflection in a Learning-Through-Design Project

Ching

Kafai

2008

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Existing research suggests that one of the challenges for teachers in persisting with innovative inquiry curricula is their difficulty scaffolding students’ transitions into technology-supported and open-ended activities. The question of whether students can effectively scaffold one another's transitions has not been previously investigated, in part, we argue, because of a predominant focus in collaborative learning research on short-term tasks and perfunctory “helping” behaviors. Purpose This article addresses the nature and role of students’ collaborations in learning-through-design, a technology-rich science inquiry curriculum. Within this environment, we examined emergent collaborative patterns among students, the affordances of those patterns for effective learning, and students’ reflections on their interactions. We paid particular attention to how students with varying degrees of previous experience in this curricular approach collaborated with one another. Setting This study took place at a university-affiliated elementary school in a West Coast urban area. Population Two mixed-grade classes of fourth- and fifth-grade students (n = 63) and their science teacher participated in this study. Fifth-grade students in one class had extensive experiences with learning through design during the previous year. Practice For 10 weeks during the fall, students in both classes learned about marine biology. During this time, they also worked in teams to create marine simulations using Logo Microworlds programming and multimedia software. Research Design/Data Collection and Analysis Design-based research guided the creation of the curriculum and examination of its effectiveness. Ethnographic methods, grounded theory, hermeneutics, and discourse analysis were used to collect and analyze video of student collaborations and interviews. Analysis of variance was conducted using the coded results from student interviews to determine significant differences among groups. Results We found that experienced fifth-graders took on many socializing functions, effectively apprenticing younger students into the practices of learning-through-design. Interviews revealed that both fourth-grade and fifth-grade students were highly reflective about their respective collaborative roles and that experienced students benefited as much as, if not more so, than inexperienced students from this arrangement. Conclusions Given experienced students’ strategic, effective, and thoughtful ongoing collaborations with their fourth-grade counterparts, we introduce and propose the term peer pedagogy to describe these interactions. This term and our constituent results have implications for existing research and practice with collaborative learning and project-based technology-integrated curricula, as well as for theory and scholarship on children's roles within learning communities.

show abstract

Using questions sent to an Ask-A-Scientist site to identify children's interests in science

et al. 2006

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT:Interest is a powerful motivator; nonetheless, science educators often lack the necessary information to make use of the power of student-specific interests in the reform process of science curricula. This study suggests a novel methodology, which might be helpful in identifying such interests-using children's self-generated questions as an indication of their scientific interests. In this research, children's interests were measured by analyzing 1555 science-related questions submitted to an international Ask-A-Scientist Internet site. The analysis indicated that the popularity of certain topics varies with age and gender. Significant differences were found between children's spontaneous (intrinsically motivated) and school-related (extrinsically motivated) interests. Surprisingly, girls contributed most of the questions to the sample; however, the number of American girls dropped upon entering senior high school. We also found significant differences between girls' and boys' interests, with girls generally preferring biological topics. The two genders kept to their stereotypic fields of interest, in both their school-related and spontaneous questions. Children's science interests, as inferred from questions to Web sites, could ultimately inform classroom science teaching. This methodology extends the context in which children's interests can be investigated. Century, 2000) states that "we are failing to capture the interest of youth for scientific and mathematical ideas." Indeed, many students find standard science curricula largely out of touch with their personal interests, a factor which contributes to the low number of students pursuing advanced science and mathematics courses in high school, and going on to choose scientific careers (Millar & Osborne, 1998). Adolescents' decisions about the contents and directions of their educational training have been found to be influenced to a high degree by the topic-related interests they developed in the preceding years (Krapp, 2000).Organizations, including the National Research Council (1996) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993), have proposed that science curricula taught at a secondary-school level should provide a common basis of knowledge while addressing the particular needs and interests of students. However, educators lack the necessary information and tools to guide modifications that could make use of the power of student-specific interests in improving those students' individualized learning and competency in scientific subjects.The issue of students' interests may also be viewed in the context of the pupil's voice in the education movement (Burke & Grosvenor, 2003;Economic and Social Research Council, 2004;Mirta, 2004;Whitehead & Clough, 2004). Until recently, the pupil's voice had been marginalized or neglected by educational researchers. The student was regarded as an object of study but not as someone who could make an informed judgment on what should be taught in school science courses (Jenkins & Nelson, 20...

show abstract

Untitled

Cited by 28 publications

References 23 publications

Integrating Digital and Mathematical Practices across Contexts: A Manifesto for Mobile Learning

Integrating Digital and Mathematical Practices across Contexts: A Manifesto for Mobile Learning

Peer Pedagogy: Student Collaboration and Reflection in a Learning-Through-Design Project

Using questions sent to an Ask-A-Scientist site to identify children's interests in science

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About