Design-based Research Study Research Articles

INVESTIGATING THE MOTIVATION LEVEL OF STUDENTS IN ONLINE LEARNING IN JUNIOR HIGH EDUCATION INSTITUTION DURING PANDEMIC COVID-19

The purpose of this study was to investigate and explore the level of junior high student’s motivation during online learning in pandemic COVID-19. In this design-based research study, motivation level is examined by ARCS survey, interview and observation. The total of respondents were 180 students with different degree levels of study, gender and academic achievement. The analyzed data was measured by SPSS. From this research, the result shows that students of middle degree level have the highest motivation level during pandemic. A statistically significant difference in motivation level is also seen at the beginning of online learning and at the middle of online learning.

Teaching in a non-traditional classroom: experiences from a teacher-initiated design project

ABSTRACT This participatory design-based research study addresses the relational character of the physical learning environment and pedagogical practice in the context of a design project carried out at a Swedish upper secondary school. Three teachers initiated the project with the intent to introduce student centred pedagogy and increase active learning. In collaboration with the research team, they designed and furnished a classroom supportive for communication and intense interaction between students, and where students and teachers could work and construct knowledge together. Drawing on observations, video recordings and design conversations with the teachers, the analysis, which is inspired by Actor Network Theory, concentrates on the six month period when the teachers started to teach in the new classroom with focus on their experiences, asking what they experienced as advantageous and challenging. Considering the new learning environment as a network of socio-material relations consisting of a) physical and spatial agents, b) organisational structural agents, and c) teacher/teaching agents, we conclude that whereas some actors corresponded well and contributed to a well-coordinated classroom practice facilitating the project’s intentions, some actors contradicted each other and challenged the same intentions.

A year at the improv: the evolution of teacher and student identity in an elementary school makerspace

ABSTRACT This article presents findings from a design-based research study that investigated curriculum implementation in a makerspace with a grade six teacher and her class over the course of one year. In comparing the figured worlds of classroom and makerspace, the authors explore through the examples of three students and the teacher how they each adopted personal improvisations from the makerspace into the culture of the classroom, leading to developments in agency and identity on the part of all. In particular, by engaging in collaborative design-based research, the teacher was able to embrace the iterative, collaborative, risk-taking nature of maker culture, which led her to rethink and transform her teaching practice. Findings suggest that the makerspace serves as a specialized learning environment in which teachers can prototype inquiry-based approaches to curricular learning.

Motivating Teaching, Sustaining Change in Practice: Design Principles for Teacher Learning in Project-Based Learning Contexts

ABSTRACT In A Framework for K-12 Science Education, researchers call for teachers to make dramatic shifts in practice – and sustain in these changes in practice – so students can engage in rigorous and equitable three-dimensional science learning. Project-Based Learning (PBL) motivates students from diverse backgrounds to persist in learning. This project presents design features that bring together the assets of the Framework with PBL, and then tests these features to derive design principles that serve as commitments for designing for teacher change and student learning. Close ethnographic study of 10 teachers over 5 years in a design-based research study is triangulated with data collected across 41 districts in multiple states engaged in a PBL elementary science curriculum. The following design principles provide guidance for developing materials that support the depth necessary for promoting changes to teachers’ practice at scale: Adaptive, Responsive, and both Enjoyable and Intellectually Satisfying.

Developing instructional technology standards for educators: A design-based research study

Digital technologies are key tools that can be used to extend and enhance teaching and learning. However, empirical evidence show educators are unclear how to integrate technology and it is often used to support past teaching practices. Designbased research (DBR) involving a grounded theory design was used to construct a set of seven detailed education technology standards to provide guidance on how technology should be integrated and a set of 24 examples as indicators of these standards. This DBR mixed methods approach involved 2429 participants and gathered data from focus groups, surveys, and interviews. The DBR involved two macro cycles of design, implementation, analysis, and revision within the development of the standards. These standards are unique as they are the first empirically developed instructional technology standards for educators.

Promoting student flow and interest in a science learning game: a design-based research study of School Scene Investigators

Promoting student flow and interest in a science learning game: a design-based research study of School Scene Investigators

The design and development of an open educational resources intervention in a college course that manifests in open educational practices: a design-based research study

The design and development of an open educational resources intervention in a college course that manifests in open educational practices: a design-based research study

A fine-grained teaching activity to establish conceptual coherence in introductory physics concepts and representations

The sequence of representations used to introduce new knowledge and the context in which this is done is critical to both effectively build on prior knowledge and establish conceptual coherence in physics. Ongoing reports indicate that current teaching activities fail address student difficulties to obtain conceptual understanding and-coherence between relevant physics representations and concepts. There is a need for fine-grained topic specific multiple representational teaching activities to enhance coherence in physics knowledge. In this paper we present a teaching activity for undergraduate physics, built on using motion diagrams to specifically relate the concepts and representations in kinematics, in particular for the concept of free fall. The teaching activity follows a conceptual qualitative approach to teaching kinematics concepts and is informed by the results of a broader Design Based Research study. In the teaching activity the concept of acceleration is introduced qualitatively as the net force to mass ratio followed by drawing motion diagrams to visualize the motion of the objects in free fall. The motion diagrams are implemented to support conceptual qualitative interpretation of mathematical representations such as graphs and equations, to enhance transfer of knowledge between representations and coherence between relevant concepts and representations. The contribution of this research lies in presenting an argument for a conceptual qualitative approach to teaching introductory mechanics and introducing a teaching activity based on the value offered of including motion diagrams in the teaching activity to enhance coherence between physics representations and between physics concepts.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Design and Implementation of a University-oriented Internal Communications Strategy for a Bachelor of General Studies Degree Program

Leading an interdisciplinary program change is challenging. Effectively communicating those changes across a University brings additional challenges associated with organizational and cultural differences across administrative and academic units. This design-based research study used exploratory sequential mixed methods to develop a strategic internal communication plan for a new Bachelor of General Studies degree. Data included interviews with four university administrators and faculty who were involved in the development of the BGS degree program followed by a survey completed by 161 staff and faculty advisors and administrators outside of the program. Interview and survey results were interpreted using sociocultural learning, co-orientation theory, and a two-way symmetrical model of communication. Findings emphasize the importance of cultural differences across administrative and academic units: collectivism (community), professionalism (cooperation and trust), balanced power-distance (student-centered learning balanced with the expertise and authority of the faculty), pragmatism (practical results and blunt pragmatic communication style), and a results-oriented approach. The results were used to design an internal marketing plan that promotes sociocultural learning across cultural differences within the university and reciprocal exchange of information among undergraduate faculty and advisors.

A Narrative Review of Design-Based Research in Engineering Education: Opportunities and Challenges

Background: Active engagement across a range of methodological frameworks is one hallmark of thriving scholarly disciplines. Design-based research is one newer approach to education research that holds promise for developing effective interventions that are iteratively theorized, designed, and tested within local engineering education contexts. Purpose: To promote engagement with diverse research frameworks, the purpose of this narrative literature review was to identify, describe, and critically examine emerging use of design-based research in engineering education. We addressed research questions focused on characterizing the use of design-based research in engineering education in terms of the a) problems studied, b) interventions designed, c) participant populations and learning contexts, d) research methods employed, e) form(s) of the research findings, and f) limitations of the literature. Furthermore, this work identified current opportunities and challenges of design-based research for the field of engineering education through analysis of review findings in light of the authors’ experiences conducting design-based research in engineering education. Scope/Method: Using established review procedures that included specified database search terms and inclusion criteria, we identified 24 empirical design-based research studies in engineering education. We used qualitative content analysis to code study characteristics including nationality, participant population, research methods, and learning context. We then synthesized and critiqued findings across studies. Conclusions: In synthesizing key aspects of empirical design-based research studies in engineering education, this review provides insights into the ways design-based research is being implemented to advance engineering education imperatives and provides a foundation for expanding and strengthening use of design-based research in future work in engineering education. Opportunities of design-based research for engineering education include developing local improvements to the field’s most persistent and vexing issues (i.e., “wicked” problems) and realizing the full potential of technology for 21st century engineering education. Challenges include developing interdisciplinary teams, the need for expertise across multiple research approaches and methods, funding emergent DBR projects, and disseminating DBR results across the project lifespan.

Enhancing the Sense of Community Through Interaction in a Global Online Course

The purpose of this study was to investigate what types of interactions promote students’ sense of community in a global online course. This design-based research study was aimed at finding out practical principles to help students develop a sense of community and have a meaningful learning experience. A total of 82 students participated in the study. Data were collected and analysed using both qualitative and quantitative methods during three design-based research cycles. These analyses produced six qualitatively different categories that were completed with questionnaire data. To meet the goals of the design-based research, this study produced an online higher education course and design principles, as well as deepened our theoretical understanding of the sense of community in online learning.

Improving Instructional Videos with Background Music and Sound Effects: A Design-Based Research Approach

There is a lack of empirical studies incorporating background music (BM) and sounds (SFX) to instructional videos to facilitate students’ learning. A design-based research study was conducted to enhance student engagement and motivation including four iterative formative evaluations. In the first iteration, graduate students’ reactions were examined to understand the potential influences of BM and SFX in the learning experience. The second iteration consisted of a small-group session focused on describing students’ levels of engagement, motivation, and learning while using videos that included BM and SFX. In the third iteration, a field test was conducted to explore the effects of BM and SFX on students’ engagement, motivation, and learning. The fourth iteration collected experts’ feedback to inform future research and practice. Results showed beneficial effects of BM and SFX for motivation, engagement, and potential learning. Practical guidelines are suggested for faculty and instructional designers to implement BM and SFX on instructional videos. The paper concludes by posing an emergent theory: the design and integration of BM and SFX need to balance the motivational improvements with the challenges of cognitive dissonance and overload.

Teacher leaders: developing collective responsibility through design-based professional learning

ABSTRACT Teacher leaders play a significant role in school and system improvement. Teacher leaders who maintain teaching responsibilities while taking on leadership responsibilities outside the classroom require professional learning. A school district worked with university faculty and professional learning facilitators to develop a design-based professional learning program (DBPL) as part of a design-based research study. Two research questions guided the study: (1) In what ways does DBPL support teacher leaders’ efforts in creating the collective collaborative capacity? (2) What is needed for teacher leaders to develop collective collaborative capacity? Teacher leaders (n = 374/500) completed a pre- and post-survey, provided artefacts, contributed to online collaborative conversations, and provided written feedback. Four findings emerged from this study; teacher leaders: 1) increased in leading teacher learning, using resources, understanding school authority goals and leadership expectations, and expanding their professional network; 2) increased in their ability to lead collaboration in their professional learning community; 3) developed trusting relationships within the network of learning leaders; and 4) required a shared or distributed approach at the school level. DBPL empowered teacher leaders to exercise leadership by taking on leadership responsibilities outside of the classroom with a deliberate focus on creating coherence by developing collective responsibility for student success.

The Assessment of the Fifth-Grade Students’ Science Critical Thinking Skills through Design-Based STEM Education

Critical thinking has been one of the 21st-century skills consistently associated with students’ future career advancement as a positive student outcome of STEM education. The aim of the study is to develop and validate science critical thinking skill instruments to assess the improvement in the subject of living organisms and force and friction through design-based STEM education. In this design-based research study, the student’s modules were developed by the integrated STEM education principles involving the activities and worksheets in line with the frame of critical thinking approach. The kappa statistics for content validity, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis for construct validity, and item and reliability analysis for the quality of items were used in the development stage of instruments. The results of these analyses endorsed the 15 two-tier item for each test of Living Things Critical Thinking (LTCT) and Measuring Force and Friction Critical Thinking (MFFCT) as unidimensional constructs to produce valid and reliable data to measure the fifth grade students' critical thinking skills in the related science content. Comparing the pre and post applications of instruments in the study group indicated that STEM modules improved the students’ science critical thinking skills such as interpretation, analysis, and inference. In this respect, developing and validating instruments to assess the integrated critical thinking skills will contribute to the empirical examination of this construct within the context of school science learning.

Fostering heterogeneous engineering through whole-class design work

ABSTRACT Background: Design problems have long attracted researchers’ attention for their potential to provide authentic learning opportunities. While we have methods for supporting students to learn through relatively simple engineering and design tasks, supporting students to address complex problems that they find and frame remains poorly understood. Designing for the real world presents opportunities to understand how heterogenous engineering practices emerge from students’ experiences, how problems are negotiated and reframed, and the forms of learning such experiences support. Descriptions of engineering practice often privilege technical aspects, where heterogeneous engineering emphasizes the active coordination of social and material dimensions as well. Methods: We present two cases from large, complex design projects: (1) a design-based research study in a school-based making space and (2) an extended participant observation in a design-build school. We used interaction analysis to characterize the forms of participation. Findings: We identified ways students negotiated social and material elements of design, how they coordinated these activities, and how the instructional environments contributed to developing heterogeneous practices. Contribution: Designers and materials both operated as agentive actors in dialogic conversations that coordinated the multitude of considerations involved in heterogeneous engineering. We argue for the importance of fostering sociomaterial entanglements to support learning in design.

Using a design-based research approach to develop and study a web-based tool to support collaborative learning

We report on a design-based research study that was conducted over two years. We developed, tested, and implemented Collabucate, a web-based tool for fostering social regulation of learning in collaborative learning. In this paper, we describe two cycles of a design-based research study in which Collabucate was implemented with Doctor of Pharmacy students. Collabucate was created according to Järvelä and colleagues' (2015) design principles for supporting socially shared regulation of learning and our design proposition to provide direct instruction of social regulation strategies. During two implementations, we collected and analyzed log data, student ratings, and focus groups. We improved design elements between the two design-based research cycles. Study results supported Järvelä and colleagues’ (2015) design principles and our design proposition. However, further work is required to improve how design elements are embodied in web-based tools. Based on our experience, we outline achievements, challenges, and future considerations for related tools and research. The study contributes to a growing number of tools created to foster awareness and effective regulation in collaborative learning.

Building Community in Asynchronous Online Higher Education Courses Through Collaborative Annotation

This design-based research study examines how a collaborative annotation tool, Perusall, supported the development of community within an asynchronous online graduate course. Students read and engaged with assigned texts uploaded to Perusall each week, providing numerous opportunities for students to interact and collaborate with each other using the tool’s various sharing and communication features. Both text interactions and peer-to-peer interactions on Perusall increased throughout the course, with peer-to-peer interactions increasing at a greater rate, indicative of community growth within the course. Collaborative annotation tools capture students’ thinking and processing in the moment, more closely mirroring the learning that one might see in a face-to-face class when students discuss content with their instructor and/or classmates. This study offers insights for teachers, teacher educators, and school leaders about new approaches for developing community in online educational contexts, especially considering the drastic shift to online learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Middle School Students’ Mechanistic Explanation About Trait Expression in Rice Plants During a Technology-Enhanced Science Inquiry Investigation

We examined the sophistication of middle school students’ mechanistic explanations of genetics phenomena and how they interact with a technology-based explanation tool as they articulate and organize their ideas about the phenomena. We coordinated curriculum and assessment design frameworks to develop a middle school curriculum unit that engages middle school students in the interrelated science practices of using models and constructing scientific explanations of the trait expression mechanism in rice plants. In order to more clearly distinguish between groups of students, specifically partial mechanistic and mechanistic explainers, we conducted a design-based research study that examines the relationships among the explanation tool’s design, how students use the tool, and the sophistication of their scientific explanations. This study, using a refined version of the curriculum unit and explanation tool, revealed significant differences between partial mechanistic and mechanistic explainers in their use of the explanation tool. The findings inform the design of technology-based scaffolds for scientific modeling and explanation and design principles for gathering formative evidence of students’ proficiency with these practices.

Becoming a Maker Teacher: Designing Making Curricula That Promotes Pedagogical Change

In this article, we focus on the case of a Canadian teacher and her students who engaged with a researcher in a year-long design-based research study exploring the implementation of curriculum within a makerspace context. Together, the grade six teacher and researcher co-designed, co-enacted, and co-reflected on three curricular making cycles, one related to sky science, another to mathematical transformations, and a third focused on core concepts of democratic systems. The two-fold purpose of this DBR was to promote pedagogical change through designs for making and to articulate design principles that could be utilized when engaging with curriculum for making. Findings show that the makerspace as learning environment and design-based research as methodology provided a double helix scaffold that compelled the teacher to reconsider her frame when enacting curriculum. For this teacher, collaboration on design-based research and designs for learning in the makerspace promoted a shift in pedagogy and led her and her students to rethink notions of curriculum while questioning what is important to know. An expansion of the intervention to engage multiple teachers in multiple sites to determine scalability is recommended. Study findings point to the makerspace as a promising design frame for rethinking curriculum and pedagogical practice.

Investigating the enactment of social presence in blended adult education

ABSTRACT Background While open-cohort blended education programmes allow for accessible and flexible study trajectories, they may present social challenges to learners. Social presence is a possible a way of enhancing adult learners’ success. It can lead to an increased perception of community, which may result in lower rates of dropping out. Purpose This study investigates how social presence may be enacted in blended adult education programmes with open cohorts. The paper reports on the first phase of a design-based research study focused on programme-level strategies to establish social presence. This includes three distinct phases: (1) a contextual analysis and jointly agreed problem setting, (2) a literature review to identify and develop social presence strategies, grounded in theory, and (3) a qualitative study to scrutinise the perceptions of adult learners and programme coordinators regarding the embedding of the social presence strategies in the ecological setting. Method Based on a review of the literature that addressed the strategies to enact facets of social presence, three intervention scenarios for practice were elaborated. These were deliberately specified at the programme level – hence encompassing multiple separate courses. Each intervention scenario proposed activities carried out by particular actors, at particular time points during a programme, by means of a certain medium and targeting a certain group size. Each intervention scenario was systematically assessed by means of semi-structured interviews with adult learners and programme coordinators, using an approach based on Kano matrices. Findings The analysis indicated that learners and programme coordinators were not in favour of a series of programme-wide interventions which lead to enactment of social presence. However, the study also showed they were, though, in favour of shared course-related experiences. Although there were contradictory perceptions among learners and staff, the allocation of time and the compulsory nature of social presence activities seemed to be decisive factors. Conclusions This study highlights that it is crucial to assess the perceptions of the full range of stakeholders prior to an intervention, in order to establish shared priorities.