Situated programming in a legologo environment

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to promote the mediation of the thinking skills and heuristic processes of an expert working in a complex technology environment. The object of learning was an automatic washing machine, the structure and functions of which were simulated by the means of LEGOTCLogo. In order to organize the learning process, cognitive apprenticeship and the constructivist conception of learning were applied. The 10-h project attempted to enable the students to learn planning skills, and, in order to evaluate the development of these skills, the implementation of the students' plans into Logo programs was analyzed. The criteria were the hierarchies of Logo programs and the number of nodes in each program. In addition, the progress of four groups of students was analyzed from real time video material, gathered by on line-techniques. It was concluded that cognitive apprenticeship, connected to the externalization and development of the students' own theories and conceptions, was able to support the mediation of planning skills and include them in the student's own actions. Following the 10-h project the programs of the students were relatively complex and organized; they even modeled satisfactorily the functions of an actual auto servo mechanism.