Design-based Research Project Research Articles

Designing computational models as Emergent Systems Microworlds to support epistemically agentive learning of emergent biological phenomena

ABSTRACT To support students’ agency in the process of constructing knowledge in a science classroom, it is important to design learning environments that allow students to shape knowledge building practices. In this paper, we present an Emergent Systems Microworld (ESM)-based learning environment called GenEvo, which is designed to ‘restructurate’ learning of fundamental ideas in modern biology, such as gene regulation. We study how cognitive, social, and affective properties of agent-based restructurations supported student learning. We report findings from a qualitative analysis of video data of student participation and interviews in the fourth iteration of a design-based research project about an ESM-based curricular unit. We discuss how specific design features of the ESM supported students’ epistemically agentive learning. Students of the GenEvo course shaped practices to investigate and construct knowledge about emergent biological phenomena and learned about emergent phenomena related to gene regulation and evolution. This work demonstrates how the properties of a restructuration make ESM-based learning environments effective for students to collectively shape knowledge building practices and learn about emergent phenomena.

Mobile learning and speech technology for language teachers’ professional development

This study aims to investigate the use of mobile learning to provide pronunciation training for lecturers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) from Vietnamese provincial universities. Mobile learning offers a potential solution for the delivery of professional development to lecturers based outside major cities thanks to its capacity to enable learning anytime, anywhere. Mobile learning and speech technology are expected to facilitate lecturers’ self-direct learning to fulfil their professional development needs using their own devices. This paper reports results from a pilot study which serves as the first phase of an ongoing design-based research project. The pilot study was carried out to explore the feasibility of an online pronunciation course and identify potential problems for future course iterations in the context of participants living outside major cities in a developing country. The objectives of the project are to establish and test a set of fundamental principles for mobile learning to be an effective way of providing online professional development for lecturers based outside major cities and to shed light on the necessary adjustments in course design to make it a scalable model for future education planning. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected during two iterations of an online pronunciation professional development course for EFL lecturers from Vietnamese provincial universities.

Dialogues across time and space in a video-based collaborative learning environment

AbstractIn this study, we investigate how pre-service teachers’ group dialogues emerged and intersected across time and space as students collaboratively constructed a video-based mind map to prepare for oral exams in a pedagogy course. The study was conducted as part of a design-based research project investigating the ways that video-based mind maps can support learning as both a collaborative activity and a classroom resource. We applied interaction analysis methods to recordings taken during the production of the mind map as well as the videos made by students within the mind map itself to analyze synchronous and asynchronous dialogues among group members as they viewed, recorded, and uploaded videos. The findings offer an in-depth understanding of how collaboration occurs in different space-time configurations within and across groups as mediated by video resources. We discuss how these findings contribute to computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) research on the ways collaboration can emerge across different levels of activity as well as the pedagogical implications for introducing video-based dialogues into the classroom.

The Energy Field Approach

Energy is an important crosscutting concept across middle and high school grades. However, studies show that students struggle understanding this concept. To address this problem, we started a design-based research project called “the energy field approach” (EFA). This project develops a teaching learning sequence (TLS) for high schools (grades 10-12). The design follows the model of educational reconstruction and builds on a clarification of the scientific content as well as on knowledge about students’ conceptions and misconceptions on the relevant topic. The result is a teaching concept and TLS that can be used by teachers for energy instruction. As a key feature, it traces traditional energy forms back to only kinetic energy and field energy. This simplifies the surface structure of the energy concept and makes sense of the meaning of energy forms like for instance chemical energy that have been “blackboxes” in traditional energy instruction before. This makes students more likely to draw back on energy ideas when reasoning about phenomena. The TLS is cyclically evaluated and re-designed by conduct and qualitative analysis of teaching experiments according to the method of probing acceptance. Results show that the concept and TLS are helpful for students to combine ideas about energy and fields and analyze processes from an energy perspective. The concept is found to be useful for a “deeper understanding” in the students’ perception. Further studies still have to be conducted to investigate the effects in a bigger setting and on further learning.

Contagious and Unexpected Moments as Gateways to Dancing Playfully Together: Students Creating Intervening Spaces

ABSTRACT Research on creative dance education has indicated that students can take risks and improvise when the teacher relinquishes control through an open and explorative approach. I add to the discussion by exploring the unexpected and spontaneous episodes when teaching dance improvisation in settings outside dance education. Based on empirical material from a design-based research project conducted within the Danish bachelor’s degree program in social education, I analyze three episodes where students take the initiative and use their bodies and voices to play essential roles in creating sensuous, repetitive, and humorous group formations. I argue that these episodes can be understood through philosophical and sociological conceptualizations such as sociability, contagion, affectivity, crowds, and laughter and that students can explore playful movement through various contagious “ripple effect” processes. These moments are a kind of significant everyday playful choreography that is a beneficial skill for social educators involving embodied creativity.

Knowledge generation between design, data and theory

Design-based research (DBR) is a diversified research genre: The combination of two worlds – that of research and that of education – and the different backgrounds and intentions of those involved entail different emphases, epistemological ideas, ideas on valuable outcomes and normative claims. This becomes visible in very different kinds of reasoning: No uniform structure of argumentation can be discerned, and so far, a differentiation into clear DBR types has not been convincingly achieved. This is a challenge for the orientation of DBR novices, the quality review of DBR studies, and the legitimation of DBR in the field of educational research. This article provides an empirical contribution to the discussion on argumentation: In a literature review, DBR studies are examined regarding their outcomes, the rationales authors use to justify their outcomes and indications for specific challenges in DBR reasoning. The analysis confirms for the sample that preliminary, prescriptive theory is most common alongside diverse practical outcomes. Authors often justify them with emphasis on variation, iteration, cooperation, and data triangulation. Different (standard) orientations, multi-level reasoning, and sub-studies present challenges for authors and readers, going back to the complexity of DBR projects. To justify their results in a comprehensible way, authors are confronted with the task to actively select an argumentation strategy.

Estimating climate change numbers: mental computation strategies that can support science learning

ABSTRACT Presenting novel numbers about climate change to people after they estimate those numbers can shift their attitudes and scientific conceptions. Prior research suggests that such science learning can be supported by encouraging learners to make use of given benchmark information, however there are several other numerical estimation skills that may also be relevant in this context. This design-based research project aimed to identify specific mathematical skills that might support postsecondary students’ learning from novel scientific data. Concurrently, we also developed an open-source online science learning app. In three design iterations, we conducted 22 think-aloud interviews with undergraduate and graduate students at a Hispanic Serving Institution as they estimated climate change data, before being shown the scientifically accepted value. Productive estimation strategies included: tolerance for error, mental computation skills (rounding and arithmetically manipulating given benchmark values), and integration of prior educational and personal experiences. Two cases are presented, the first illustrates a student who used estimation strategies productively and was tolerant of their inaccuracies, and the second illustrates a student who reacted negatively to feedback on their inaccuracies. Results implicate principles for integrating mathematics and science learning and showcase a learning intervention that embodies those principles.

Discussion Formats for Addressing Emotions: Implications for Social-Emotional Learning

Scholars of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) advocate discussion as a promising instructional method yet rarely specify how such discussions should be conducted. Facilitating classroom discussions is highly challenging, particularly about emotions. Furthermore, the SEL literature contains contradictory discursive imperatives; it typically overlooks the gaps between students’ and teachers’ emotional codes and how these codes are shaped by culture, class, and gender. The current study explores different ways in which teachers facilitate classroom dialogue about emotions. We analyze data drawn from a two-year ethnographic study conducted as part of a design-based implementation research project aimed at fostering productive dialogue in primary language arts classrooms, looking in particular at two lessons centered around a story about crying. We found two different interactional genres for discussions about emotions: (1) inclusive emotional dialogue, in which students share emotions experienced in their everyday lives; (2) emotional inquiry, in which students explore emotions, their expressions, and their social meanings. Both types of discussion generated informative exchanges about students’ emotions. Yet the discussions also put the teacher and students in challenging positions, often related to the need to navigate between contradictory discursive norms and emotional codes.

Enhancing Empathy for Justice: A Methodology for Expansive Teacher Professional Development through Creative Body-Based Learning

This paper reports from a design-based research project seeking to reduce bullying, and so, contribute to the sustainability goal of improving (understanding of) justice. Goals such as this call for holistic and interdisciplinary ways of thinking that are quite at odds with the linear and reductionist epistemologies available with globally dominant ‘neoliberal’ discourses on education and educational decision making. To achieve goals such as improving justice, sustainable education and educators must explore and champion expansive ways of knowing that acknowledge and celebrate the complexity of everyday learning contexts. Responding to this need, this paper presents a case study of how we, as a group of educational designers and teacher educators, have explored how the arts-based pedagogy known as Creative Body-Based-Learning, when coupled with Engeström’s expansive theory of learning, can provide an alternative structure and methodology for teacher professional knowledge production. The paper will also outline the use of the research methodology of computer-aided phenomenography as a means of evaluating this kind of complex learning where simple testing and self-reporting are typically inadequate.

Can I Join in? Understanding Children’s Participation in Play

Based on a design-based research project and ethnographic observations of children’s play in school and after-school activities, the paper analyses how children participate in play. Using participatory sense-making (De Jaegher & Di Paolo, 2007) the main contribution of this paper is to show diversity in sensory, playful participation in children’s play, and emphasise the importance of paying attention to the not spoken, sensory, embodied movements that children share when playing. The analysis illustrates that children participate in play through a sensory engagement, which is short, intense and not spoken, and by taking part in other children’s and adults’ participatory approaches.

Does it occur or not? – A structured approach to support students in determining the spontaneity of chemical reactions

Abstract Thermodynamics is a central topic of chemistry as it holds a crucial role in understanding chemical processes. Due to its complexity, level of abstraction and amount of “mathematics”, chemical thermodynamics is one of the most challenging subjects resulting in a huge number of inappropriate conceptions. To determine whether a chemical reaction is spontaneous in a particular direction, students need to apply a huge amount of chemical knowledge when completing a complex, multi-step thinking process. In a Design-Based Research project, we developed “unmathematical” instructional material that aims at supporting students in accomplishing this demanding task. By providing a step-by-step instruction and incorporating scaffolding measures, students are guided through four successive tasks. The material was implemented in more than ten upper secondary chemistry classes and four teacher education courses and was proved to be proper for independent work, supporting students in connecting thermodynamics to basic chemical knowledge. Working on the material enables students to overcome barriers in the field of chemical thermodynamics and to successfully complete tasks in the area of thermodynamics and physical chemistry. Teachers can easily adapt the material to specific contents, levels, and teaching requirements. Further, the supportive material can be applied to offer differentiated and individualised learning paths.

Teaching research methods in education: using the TPACK framework to reflect on praxis

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the discussion on research methods pedagogy by adding a technological dimension to Nind’s use of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in research methods education (RME). Within a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning approach, this research-inspired reflection is based on the literature, on the scholar’s praxis and on the on-going design-based research project she has been conducting since 2014. Trained in educational technologies more than 20 years ago, she shares an initial understanding of the use of the TPACK framework for the teaching of research methods in education. Findings include initial definitions of each type of individual knowledge (CK, PK, TK), overlapping knowledge (TPK, TCK, PCK) and a proposal for TPACK as a whole. Secondly, the findings show that technology appears to be a revealing indicator of current praxis in RME, inviting scholars to question methodolatry and technodolatry. As a corollary, Content Knowledge (CK) needs more attention to reconnect RME with its philosophical foundations. Research method teachers and students in the social sciences will foremost benefit from this study and are invited to contribute to the debate within a broader collective intelligence endeavour.

Theme-centered interaction and developmental tasks as research method and pedagogical tool regarding identity development in VET.

This paper presents the methodology of a PhD project on identity development in German dual track VET. The mixed methods approach comprises theory-driven longitudinal case studies using qualitative and quantitative data and a document analysis of curricula. The study was part of a larger design-based research project and aimed to evaluate a newly developed and implemented VET curriculum for the retail sector from the learners' point of view. The new curriculum contained a special competence dimension to foster vocational identity development and a major interest was to investigate the extent to which the curriculum succeeded to do so. The paper will start with a summary and assessment of limitations and advantages of research designs applied in different existing studies examining identity development. The author will then outline identity-relevant theories and approaches that proved to be useful for her research interest. Subsequently, she will describe the resulting design for collecting and analyzing her data. The core result consists of a theme-centered process analysis visualizing the individual state of developmental tasks. With the presentation of three exemplary cases she will illustrate how her approach allowed her to deeply understand the identity of the respective person and at the same time generate general insights about identity development of learners in VET. Finally, strengths and limitations of her approach will be discussed. This research approach is also suited to supporting pedagogical design, representing major added value.

Designing example-generating tasks for a technology-rich mathematical environment

This paper provides some insights into the use of example-generating tasks in the design of a technology-rich learning environment to enhance students’ mathematical thinking. The paper reports on an early stage of a design-based research project concerning the design of tasks and associated feedback utilising the affordances provided by a combined use of a dynamic mathematics software environment and a computer-aided assessment system. In example-generating tasks, students are asked to generate examples that fulfil certain conditions. Based on data in terms of examples generated by 491 first-year engineering students, taking a first course in calculus, the paper examines patterns of student response to three example-generating tasks. As a theoretical lens, the notions of dimensions of possible variation and associated ranges of permissible change are used. In light of the observed patterns, the paper provides some guiding principles for designing example-generating tasks and associated formative feedback to foster students’ mathematical understanding by enriching their example spaces. For example, this paper illustrates occasions where it might be instructive to start by asking for two examples, followed by adapted feedback before requesting a third example.

Documenting Children’s Spatial Reasoning through Art: A Case Study on Play-Based STEAM Education

The purpose of this paper is to examine how children’s art can document emergent sensemaking of spatial reasoning. Spatial reasoning is the understanding of how both people and objects interact with, and relate to, one another. The recent literature has argued for spatial reasoning to be part of multiple domains in STEAM education by highlighting the dynamic nature of spatial thinking relevant in everyday life. The data come from a larger participatory design-based research project that incorporated play, environmental education, and embodiment in a STEAM curriculum. The paper analyzed art created by a focal group of children (6–8 years) as they learned about the kelp forest ecosystem over time. Findings reveal that spatial reasoning is not only an inseparable part of sensemaking in STEAM education, but has implications for environmental education in the elementary curriculum.

The impact of interest: an emergent model of interest development in the early years

ABSTRACT The literature defines curiosity and interest, but it is not clear how interest can be generated, where interest is positioned in the learning process, and what the impact of interest is on cognitive and emotional development. This paper reports on a three-year, iterative design-based research project involving three separate cohorts totalling 57 early learners in an early learning setting in Southern Queensland, Australia. The young learners aged 4–5 years, engaged in an enrichment program that extended over a two-week period for each of 15 topics. Insights were gained on how young children developed interested in a topic. An emergent model of authentic interest was developed, showing how interest is situated centrally in the learning process. It also shows how interest raised awareness, exploration, and new knowledge, creating a cycle of repeated engagement with the topic, thereby enhancing cognitive and emotional development.

From turtle in a shell to one that wins the race: noticing identities in interactive classroom learning communities

ABSTRACT This research advances notions about how interactive learning environments that intentionally shape learners’ identities can empower students and give them agency. Our work draws on research on teacher noticing, extends it to the community level, and orients it towards identity. We provide an instrumental case study approach that examines community-identity noticing within a long term design-based research project around humanistic learning communities. We use interaction analysis methods to provide a rich, micro-analysis of community-identity noticing. Our findings show four types of community-identity noticing practices that include eliciting, elaborating, or adding to an identity narrative [PEN]; endorsing a narrative; nuanced re-authoring of a narrative (near re-authoring) [NEAR]; or suggesting an alternative narrative (far re-authoring) [FAR]. Our framework provides a way to elucidate how the authoring of learners’ identities is a joint accomplishment of the community. We discuss how these noticing practices each have a unique role, but ultimately work in tandem.

Blurring the boundaries of current and future selves: students’ STEM identity exploration in a multimodal composing learning environment

ABSTRACT As multimodal composition is gradually integrated into STEM learning, research is needed to examine how to fully connect multimodal composing practices and STEM practices to support students’ STEM identity exploration. To fill in this gap, we conducted a design-based research project to investigate how students explored STEM identities in a multimodal composing environment. A total of 42 fifth- to eighth-grade students participated in the project in which they worked in groups to create multimodal science fiction stories. We identified two cross-cutting themes regarding how students presented STEM-related selves in multimodal artifacts: channeling current and imagined future life experiences into multiple characters and experiencing a hypothetical universe through restorying the self. The findings suggest that students presented a mix of current and future selves in multimodal artifacts. This study sheds light on promoting STEM identity by engaging students in presenting selves through modes of choice.

New Developments and Emergent Challenges in International Inclusive Education—A Response to Growing Family Needs and the Pandemic

Home education is a phenomenon that has been increasing globally over the past decade, particularly for families of children with special educational needs or disabilities. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this phenomenon with many families continuing to home educate even after their children can officially return to school. This paper reports on a small-scale design-based research project that explored the needs of families who are home educating children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Working in partnership with educational settings, practitioners, and families during the second year of the pandemic, academic researchers in Malaysia and England designed, implemented and evaluated a home learning pack for children with ASD aged 6–12 years old. The findings emphasised the role of economic, social and cultural capital for the families involved and how this impacted their ability to work and educate their children successfully. This raises crucial questions in relation to the place of home education within the wider international inclusive education debate and matters of social equality whilst also highlighting key questions for future research in this field on how policy and provision might develop to meet a growing diversity of need.

Introducing Debate as a pedagogical tool in pharmacy education

Communication skills are crucial for pharmacists’ role in counselling and providing information to patients, other healthcare practitioners, and the community. This study explores the implementation of debate as a pedagogical tool into pharmacy education to improve students’ communication skills.This study is part of the design-based research (DBR) project FREMFARM that aims to design, test, and evaluate the expansion of active learning modalities in pharmacy education at the University of Bergen. The project embeds an explicit focus upon the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The sample in the current study consisted of 4th year pharmacy students. Qualitative methods were used to explore students’ perception of implementing the debate activity in the Clinical Pharmacy course. Data were collected using a short pre and post questionnaire, observation using an adapted version of the Teaching Dimension Observation Protocol and post activity focus groups. Analysis was inspired by the systematic text condensation methodology. Our main finding was that students showed a high level of enthusiasm and interest in the new learning activity. Most students agreed that the debate helped them structure their thinking and simplify their language when communicating complex concepts. Students also expressed that preparing for the debate helped them organize thoughts, spurred them to gather information from prior taught courses, and draw connections to additional fields to prepare arguments. Some students reported transformation in their learning and change of their position and perspective after the debate. Still, some students found the effort used to prepare for the debate activity too large in relation to the gains. We conclude that the debate as a teaching tool increases students’ engagement and that the students experience that the activity had positive impact on their communication and argumentation skills. Despite students experiencing the debate as an unknown and demanding methodology, they considered it important for their academic and professional development. It generated opportunities for critical thinking, argumentative capacity, use of communication skills and teamworking skills. We consider the first trial successful and will continue to implement and upscale the use of debate as a pedagogical tool for future evaluation.