Abstract
Microworlds are simulations in computational environments where the student can manipulate objects and learn from those manipulations. Since their creation, they have been used in a wide range of academic areas to improve students learning from elementary school to college. However, their effectiveness is unclear since many studies do not measure the acquired knowledge after the use of microworlds but instead they focus on self-evaluation. Furthermore, it has not been clear whether its effect on learning is related to the teaching method. In this study, we perform a meta-analysis to ascertain the impact of microworlds combined with different teaching methods on students’ knowledge acquisition. We applied a selection criterion to a collection of 668 studies and were left with 10 microworld applications relevant to our learning context. These studies were then assessed through a meta-analysis using effect size with Cohen’s d and p-value. Our analysis shows that the cognitive methods combined with microworlds have a great impact on the knowledge acquisition (d = 1.03; p < 0.001) but failed to show a significant effect (d = 0.21) for expository methods.
Highlights
Since the creation of LOGO (Logic Oriented Graphic Oriented) (Papert 1980; Papert et al 1979), microworlds have been used by teachers in a wide range of areas to enhance students’ knowledge acquisition and to promote the development of higher order cognitive skills, such as planning a course of actions or heuristics of problem-solving (e.g. Pea and Kurland 1984)
Considering the used methodology in this study, we seem to emphasize the combination of the traditional meta-analysis, with the measurement of the traditional effect size and the p-curve analysis as main criterium, an emerging methodology that reinforces the results of the traditional meta-analysis
We point out the use of text mining technique to select the articles that would be included in the meta-analysis as a great technique whether the dictionaries are appropriate
Summary
Since the creation of LOGO (Logic Oriented Graphic Oriented) (Papert 1980; Papert et al 1979), microworlds have been used by teachers in a wide range of areas to enhance students’ knowledge acquisition and to promote the development of higher order cognitive skills, such as planning a course of actions or heuristics of problem-solving (e.g. Pea and Kurland 1984). The development of cognitive skills and the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge associated with microworlds in schools are influenced by a wide range of variables that many studies do not discriminate. One of these variables is the teaching method, not always measured, because some studies use microworlds in the classroom to study other variables, such as Technology (ALT), a UK-based professional and scholarly society and membership organisation.
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