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Design-Based Research: Putting a Stake in the Ground
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The article highlights and problematizes some challenges that are faced in carrying out design-based research. It states that the emerging field of learning sciences is one that is interdisciplinary, drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives and research paradigms so as to build understandings of the nature and conditions of learning, cognition and development. A fundamental assumption of many learning scientists is that cognition is not a thing located within the individual thinker but is a process that is distributed across the knower, the environment in which knowing occurs and the activity in which the learner participates. In other words, learning, cognition, knowing and context are irreducibly co-constituted and cannot be treated as isolated entities or processes.
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... In design-based research (DBR) studies, researchers aim to develop "humble" (Cobb et al., 2003, p. 9) theories in addition to empirically discovering what works (Barab & Squire, 2004). Therefore, the dual goals of my DBR study were to support teachers in becoming culturally responsive engineering teachers, but also to study if and how that happens. ...
... Researchers have also used different or multiple labels to describe DBR: a series or family of approaches, a methodological framework, a group of methods, a paradigm, or a methodology (Barab & Squire, 2004;Collins et al., 2004;DBR Collective, 2003;Phillips, 2006). As there is no clear consensus, I generally use the term approach throughout the paper, occasionally referring to specific methods within the DBR approach. ...
... A final key element of DBR centers on its dual aims of utility in local context as well as developing or furthering the theoretical knowledge of the field by generating theoretical conjectures and then putting them "in harm's way" (Cobb et al., 2003, p. 10). Barab and Squire (2004) explained that DBR extends beyond designing and testing innovations simply to see if they work. Rather, the designed interventions should be grounded in theoretical understanding of teaching and learning to allow researchers to examine relationships between theory, practice, and the designed interventions (Bielaczyc, 2013;DBR Collective, 2003). ...
This qualitative, design-based research study explored the design, implementation, and outcomes of a professional development for mid-career K-8 science and engineering teachers. The Responsive and Empowering Science and EngineeringTeacher (RESET) professional development was designed to support teachers in developing role identities as culturally responsive teachers, change agents disrupting inequitable educational practices, and advocates of students’ equitable access to and participation in science and engineering disciplines. Four mid-career K-8 teachers participated in RESET, which was embedded in a five-week summer program focused on solar energy engineering. The teachers engaged in activities designed to increase their knowledge of and pedagogical strategies for culturally responsive teaching. After each key event, teachers reflected on their experiences in terms of their role identities, including their purposes and goals, self-perceptions, beliefs, and perceived action possibilities for that role. Teachers also engaged in critical discussions examining how the strategies and practices might contribute to more equitable science and engineering practices.
An embedded case study design was used, with RESET as the focal case and the four teachers as embedded cases, to examine teachers’ experiences during RESET and actions during the school year. I analyzed teacher surveys, semi-structured interviews, written reflections, audio recordings of the critical discussions, and researcher memos from during RESET and school year observations to determine the influence of RESETon teachers’ role identity development and actions. I also analyzed a series of conjecture maps created to detail the design and adaptations of RESET to explore the extent to �which RESET’s targeted enactment processes and outcomes had been achieved and design and process conjectures had been supported.
Findings varied across participants, with all four participants at least somewhat achieving the targeted outcomes, indicating that all of the teachers’ role identities were influenced by RESET. Three of four teachers translated their learning into actions as culturally responsive science and engineering teachers during the school year. In terms of RESET’s design, several of the conjectures were supported or partially supported. Implications for the second iteration of RESET and for the general scholarship on professional development for mid-career K-8 science and engineering teachers are discussed.
... The methodological approach of the study was inspired by Design-Based Research (e.g., Squire & Barab, 2004), which stresses how context matters in educational interventions. Consequently, the study was organised around an iterative series of interventions with the game-related teaching unit in order to document and qualify educational design principles for teaching with games in L1 classrooms. ...
... In this way, the teachers at School 1 and 3 remained "nongamer teachers" (Prestridge, 2017), whereas the teachers at School 2 who went "all in" managed to develop expertise with Minecraft and The Mysterious Island and even reframed the game unit to fit with their local aims. Following the methodological approach of Design-Based Research (Barab & Squire, 2004), this key finding can be phrased as an educational design principle that might qualify teachers' use of digital games in L1 -namely, that literacy teachers need sufficient experience with the specific game being taught in order to understand the game as not only a text, but also a design with specific game elements (e.g., game mechanics, narrative structure) that involve specific social actions (e.g., collaboration, construction) related to specific game challenges (e.g., what it means to survive on The Mysterious Island). In this way, the teachers needed sufficient knowledge and understanding of specific game challenges to transform them into meaningful educational challenges that related to local curricular aims. ...
A fairly large body of research has documented how digital games can be used in L1 education. However, there is still a lack of detailed studies on how literacy teachers go about teaching with games as multimodal texts in the classroom. Revisiting earlier empirical work on the use of the sandbox game Minecraft in primary school, the aim of this paper is to explore how a specific game challenge is enacted in practice as seen from a dialogic perspective. Drawing on theories on games and literacies, dialogic education, and teachers as professional practitioners, the paper presents the Game as Educational Challenge (GEC) model in order to understand how L1 teachers frame specific game challenges and facilitate dialogue with the students in relation to their game experiences. The model is used to reanalyse empirical examples of how teachers from three primary schools adopted a teaching unit with Minecraft through different pedagogical approaches. The findings show not only how the teachers’ framing of the game challenges reflected their familiarity with the game, but also how they taught and related the game challenges to curricular aims in different ways. Moreover, it is found that the teachers negotiated authorial positions quite differently when facilitating classroom discussions with students about their game experiences.
... This study employs design-based research (Barab & Squire, 2004) to design the scoring rubrics for assessment tasks. We designed initial scoring rubrics and used the rubrics to train humans and developed machine learning algorisms to score students' responses. ...
This poster session assembled 11 cutting-edge research reports conducted at eight major institutions in the US, regarding developing and using artificial intelligence (AI)-augmented assessment tools to support STEM instruction. The papers discuss rubric design, algorithmic model development, AI application development, adaptive learning, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) support, assessment scenarios development, ITS virtual lab, teacher identify reconstruction, AI-based assessment practices, etc. Researchers will present empirical studies, conceptual work, and review studies. The work represents the status quo of AI-augmented assessment practices and contributes to our understanding of the theories, principles, and practices. Two discussants will discuss the opportunities and challenges identified in these presentations to advance this emergent field.
... This study utilized design-based research (Barab & Squire, 2009;Sandoval & Bell, 2004) to understand the results of a literature circle assignment. Implementation of literature circles within this course is two-fold: (1) to teach PSTs the benefits of using literature circles with linguistically diverse students in their classrooms, and (2) to expose them to culturally authentic texts and stories about diverse school-aged children. ...
This manuscript focuses on a literature circles assignment implemented within a course focused on culturally and linguistically responsive teaching. The assignment was born from a desire to help preservice teachers (PSTs) recognize how to use adolescent texts to support culturally responsive teaching and social justice education in their future classrooms. PSTs selected adolescent literature featuring main characters from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and formed literature circles based on that selection. Through reading and reflection, PSTs engaged in critical self-examination of their biases, values, and assumptions that impact interactions with culturally and linguistically diverse learners.
... This methodology is based on teaching-learning sequences' design-based research, which aims to generate knowledge about the nature and conditions of teaching and learning by means of the design and development of educational innovation in the classroom environment. Design-based research (DBR) includes the design, implementation, and assessment of a TLS, which generates new didactical knowledge that can be applied back to the educational system (Barab and Squire, 2004;Kortland and Klaassen, 2010;Guisasola et al., 2021). ...
Snails have occupied an important role in the ideology and religion of the ancient American peoples, who considered them to be magical and used them in ritual ceremonies as ornaments, musical instruments, and architectural elements. Today, they are a valuable study system for understanding biodiversity and evolution due to their remarkable ecological and morphological diversity. Given that many endemic snails are of conservation concern, and that most South American species are poorly studied, there is a need to engage the public through understandable and scientifically based language, conveying the importance of biodiversity. However, not all biodiversity can be seen with the naked eye. Herein, we describe how we utilize snails and their shells to engage citizens and train teachers to promote the many different facets of biodiversity. Through design-based research oriented toward educational innovation, we created a teaching–learning sequence with immersive technology through the following stages of work: (1) produce a teaching–learning sequence and accompanying mobile device application (for Android on GooglePlay), (2) evaluate the impact of the educational resource, and (3) conduct research through a pre- and posttest design on the learning outcomes of participants. In this work, we first present the field experience where scientists, teachers, and pre-service teachers worked together to find snails from northern Chile to Chiloé Island. Some results from this research stage are: criteria for designing a teaching–learning sequence (e.g., how to utilize place as an opportunity for learning science with developmentally appropriate technologies identified for every phase of the sequence), modeling relevant phenomena about biodiversity and ecosystems through snails, scaffolding for teachers implementing the sequence, and activities that enhance STEM education. A teaching–learning sequence that addresses snails as study objects for 4th grade is presented and validated, allowing us to continue the next phase of our research with schools. A second article will propose results from implementation, iterations, and their implications.
Computational thinking (CT) is a critical skill needed for STEM professionals and educational interventions that emphasize CT are needed. In engineering, one potential pedagogical tool to build CT is modeling, an essential skill for engineering students where they apply their scientific knowledge to real-world problems involving planning, building, evaluating, and reflecting on created systems to simulate the real world. However, in-depth studies of how modeling is done in the class in relation to CT are limited. We used a case study methodology to evaluate a model-planning activity in a final-year undergraduate engineering classroom to elicit CT practices in students as they planned their modeling approach. Thematic analysis was used on student artifacts to triangulate and identify diverse ways that students used CT practices. We find that model-planning activities are useful for students to practice many aspects of CT, such as abstraction, algorithmic thinking, and generalization. We report implications for instructors wanting to implement model-planning activities into their classrooms.
Ornithology courses have traditionally been developed through face-to-face lectures complemented with field trips, but currently technologies offer new possibilities to the training process. The present study aims to provide useful guidance for the application of technological resources in teaching the fundamental principles of ornithology and bird watching in a blended learning environment. The course was aimed at students and professionals of the biological sciences through the combined modality of synchronous and asynchronous classes. In the synchronous classes, lectures were held and the asynchronous ones through the use of a virtual learning environment with practical and autonomous activities. The result of the anterior and posterior knowledge test had variations, although without significant differences. Regarding the development of the activities, the undergraduate students were those who carried out the content creation tasks using different technological resources, while the postgraduate professionals showed tendencies towards the development of jobs with greater cognitive demand. Among the most popular resources, EDpuzzle, Padlet and GoConqr were highlighted. Regarding the virtual environment, the participants attended mostly in the evening and at night, with the most frequent sessions being the introduction, the anatomical study and the systematics of mangrove birds. In conclusion, the students have used the different technological resources provided by the teacher to design their own learning experiences, but they were not enough for them to fully master the different topics that were addressed in the course.
The scope of academic processes in which Information and Communication Technologies are incorporated (ICT) has increased in recent decades, same as the number of concerns about its contributions to learning itself. A predominantly instrumental sense of these technologies becomes evident as far as scientific education in Colombia is concerned. This work seeks the construction of a teaching model that may guide natural science teachers around the design of proposals for implementing Digital Information and Communication Technologies (DICT), based on science education challenges (Hodson, 2003; 2010) and the Critical Meaningful Learning Theory (Moreira, 2005; 2010). Thus, Design-Based Research (DBR) is regarded as a methodological standpoint, which, based in turn on a systemic and iterative process, allows the development of a model and validate the potential these technologies have to meet the challenges science teaching entails when their foray into the classroom is based on didactic, pedagogical and epistemological foundations.
In a recent Educational Researcher article, Brown, Collins, and Duguid (January-February 1989) discussed the concept of situated cognition. We explore relationships between this concept and our Technology Center’s work on anchored instruction. In the latter, instruction is anchored (situated) in videodisc-based, problem-solving environments that teachers and students can explore.
We argue that situated cognition provides a broad, useful framework that emphasizes the importance of focusing on everyday cognition, authentic tasks, and the value of in-context apprenticeship training. Anchored instruction provides a way to recreate some of the advantages of apprenticeship training in formal educational settings involving groups of students. In addition, some of the principles of anchored instruction may make it possible to create learning experiences that are more effective than many that occur in traditional apprenticeship training. Together, the situated cognition and anchored instruction perspectives suggest ways to think differently about instruction, and they suggest important issues for future research.
In this manuscript we describe our introductory astronomy course for
undergraduate students in which students use three-dimensional (3-D)
modeling tools to model the solar system and, in the process, develop
rich understandings of astronomical phenomena. Consistent with our
participatory pedagogical framework, it was our intention to establish a
context that supported students in carrying out scientific inquiry using
virtual models they developed. The progression of our thinking and the
course curriculum has been grounded in a series of design experiments,
in which we develop entire courses, do research, and cycle what we are
learning into the next iteration of the course. In this manuscript, we
use field notes, portions of case studies, interview data, artifact
analysis, and excerpts from previous manuscripts to situate the reader
in the actual happenings of the course. Focusing primarily on the
dynamics of the earth-moon-sun system, we illustrate the modeling
process and how learning evolved in this context. In general, we found
that 3-D modeling can be used effectively in regular undergraduate
university courses as a tool through which students can develop rich
understandings of various astronomical phenomena. Additionally, we found
the design experiment approach to be a useful strategy for supporting
course design that was both theoretically and empirically grounded.