Computational What? Relating Computational Thinking to Teaching

Computational thinking is one of the skills critical for successfully solving problems posed in a technology driven and complex society. The limited opportunities in school settings to help students develop computational thinking skills underscores the need for helping teachers integrate it in their practices. Besides developing the knowledge of technology, content, and pedagogy, teachers need to recognize the relevance of computational thinking to their teaching, a factor influencing their future practice with it. Drawing from the literature on problem-solving and TPACK framework, this paper discusses strategies, including content-specific examples, problem-solving nature of computational thinking, and the methods of teaching problem-solving for enabling teachers to make the connections between computational thinking and their practices.     

A Theoretical Model for Preparing Incarcerated Youth for Careers in an Increasingly Technological World: Computational Logic as a Vehicle for Improving Human Decision-making Skills

Most youth in juvenile delinquent systems end up incarcerated due in part to poor decision-making skills. This study describes a theoretical framework undergirding the relationships across delinquency, learning climate, decision-making, and computational logic. This framework will inform a team of educators, criminologists, and psychologists, and their peers in computer science and mathematics, instructional software design, and content experts as they build and test an innovative instructional model for youth in secure care settings. The goal of the system is to improve human decision-making skills, while preparing youth for further education potentially leading to careers in STEM fields.     

Physica: A Computer Environment for Physics Problem-Solving

Physica is an integrated software package designed as part of a course for distance learning students from non-traditional educational backgrounds. It gives students access to an extensive hyperlinked physics glossary, computer algebra and graph-plotting tools. The package aims to give students a framework for solving physics problems and to help them acquire some higher level skills of quantitative problem-solving. This paper outlines rationales underlying various protocols for solving physics problems, and discusses the extent to which frameworks may be useful in helping students develop appropriate strategies for representing problems in formal terms, selecting targets, planning solutions and checking answers. Pedagogical issues underlying the design and implementation of the software are discussed.     

Tangible Interaction and Cultural Forms: Supporting Learning in Informal Environments

Designers who create computer-based learning experiences for places like museums, out-of-school programs, and homes face a number of challenges related to the informal nature of such settings. Designs must generally function on their own without the support of teachers or curriculum while at the same time engaging a diverse audience, supporting productive social interaction, and activating appropriate prior knowledge and skills. In this article, I present an approach to the design of informal learning experiences based on tangible interaction. The term tangible refers to a variety of human–computer interaction techniques that move beyond computer screens and create opportunities for people to interact with digital systems using their bodies and physical artifacts. I argue that tangible interaction creates unique opportunities for designers to shape objects and situations to evoke cultural forms of literacy, learning, and play. In particular, I propose a class of cultural forms called cueing forms that can invite participation into patterned social activity while cueing cognitive, physical, and emotional resources on the part of individuals. To illustrate these arguments, I describe 3 design cases that colleagues and I have created to support learning in museums and homes.     

A Guide to Analyzing Message–Response Sequences and Group Interaction Patterns in Computer‐mediated Communication

This paper proposes a set of methods and a framework for evaluating, modeling, and predicting group interactions in computer‐mediated communication. The method of sequential analysis is described along with specific software tools and techniques to facilitate the analysis of message–response sequences. In addition, the Dialogic Theory and its assumptions are presented to establish a theoretical framework and guide to using sequential analysis in computer‐mediated communication research. Step‐by‐step instructions are presented to illustrate how sequential analysis can be used to measure the way latent variables (e.g., message function, response latency, communication style) and exogenous variables (e.g., gender, discourse rules, context) affect how likely a message is to elicit a response, the types of responses elicited by the message, and whether or not the elicited sequence of responses (e.g., claim → challenge → explain) mirror the processes that support group decision‐making, problem‐solving, and learning.     

Balancing Plan-Driven and Agile Methods in Software Engineering Project Courses

Abstraction is a major concept in computer science and serves as a powerful tool in software development. Pattern-oriented instruction (POI) is a pedagogical approach that incorporates patterns in an introductory computer science course in order to structure the learning of algorithmic problem solving. This paper examines abstraction processes in the course of solving an algorithmic problem and highlights three distinct, although interrelated, facets of abstraction: pattern recognition, black-boxing, and structure identification. A study that examined the influence of the POI approach on students' abstraction skills is described; students who learned according to the POI approach were compared with students who learned in a traditional manner with regard to analogical reasoning and problem decomposition and solution, as well as verbal expression. The three facets of abstraction were used to analyze students' abstraction skills and their competency in algorithmic problem solving.     

现代教育技术与泰国华文教育

泰国华文教育发展迅速,如何利用现代教育技术提高华文教育效果是当前急需解决的问题。中文电脑可以帮助汉语学习者识字辨音,可以给学习者训练阅读技能、提高听说能力等提供广阔的汉语空间,这对提高泰国华文教育效果很有帮助。     

The Software Process: A Parallel Approach through Problem Solving and Program Development

First-year computer science students are receiving early introduction to the software process through a problem solving and program development approach. We present a methodology that addresses the needs and difficulties of students learning programming, incorporating the tasks required for solving problems and writing programs. This approach allows for incremental exposure to the complex field of software engineering, consistent with the level of the introductory computing course, while providing the learner with fundamental skills applicable to other domains. The correlation between the software process and the problem solving/program development approach is also demonstrated.     

Examining problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments as related to numeracy and literacy

ABSTRACT

This study sought to a better understanding of the construct of problem solving in technology-rich environments and the effect of literacy and numeracy on problem solving. Data used in this study were drawn from Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies US data which includes 5010 completed cases and a total of 1326 variables. The assessment of literacy, numeracy and problem-solving competencies were administrated using computer-based approaches. The result of the study showed that adults with higher numeracy and literacy competencies were more likely to have higher level of problem-solving skills. The results of the analyses also revealed that solution latency (i.e. time) were an important factor influencing problem-solving skills. This study indicates that basic mathematical skills are essential for solving problems that require interpersonal communication, computer and software knowledge, planning, and organising. The findings from this study provide several implications for researchers, educators, teachers and policymakers.     

Later Life: A Time To Learn

In this article, an emerging framework for investigating and interpreting the experiences of learning in later life is presented. This framework is contextualized by a study in which the lived experiences of later-life computer learners were investigated. Significant ontological and existential interpretations from the study provided insights into the meaning of time in later life. Time for the omega generation is particularly important because people look to the past and the present for both meaning and integrity. They then use this knowledge to look to the future for a time when they will no longer be living. The period of older adulthood is also unique in the life course as an opportunity to learn. With no time constraints, people in later life are able to devote time to learning in a way not previously experienced. Interpretations from the research project provide a link between learning in later life and the ontological and existential search for meaning. These three related constructs (i.e., time, later life, and learning) are explored in this article.     

Conceptual Change from the Framework Theory Side of the Fence

We describe the main principles of the framework theory approach to conceptual change and briefly report on the results of a text comprehension study that investigated some of the hypotheses that derive from it. We claim that children construct a naive physics which is based on observation in the context of lay culture and which forms a relatively coherent conceptual system—i.e., a framework theory—that can be used as a basis for explanation and prediction of everyday phenomena. Learning science requires fundamental ontological, epistemological, and representational changes in naive physics. These conceptual changes take a long time to be achieved, giving rise to fragmentation and synthetic conceptions. We also argue that both fragmentation and synthetic conceptions can be explained to result from learners’ attempts assimilate scientific information into their existing but incompatible naive physics.     

Democratic Values Education Reconsidered: A Moral Realist Case

Gary Dann criticises my argument that democratic values education requires a moral realist framework. In this paper I argue that Dann's critique contains three basic confusions: (1) He assumes that moral realism necessarily implies evidentialism. (2) He assumes that moral realism gives priority to philosophical thinking as over against common sense reasoning. (3) He forgets that realism is primarily an ontological rather than an epistemological doctrine.     

Abel型常微分方程的Maple求解

介绍了使用M ap le 9.5求解非常数不变式的A bel型方程的方法.在诸多的应用领域里,不少问题的数学模型常常可用A bel型方程来表示.而非常数不变式(non-constant invariants)的A bel型方程的求解极为困难.用数学软件M ap le求解A bel型方程,是通过解决相关的等价问题,从而求解与可积类(integrab le classes)方程等价的任何一个方程.M ap le的ode-pde程序包具有强大的解算符号微分方程的功能,这是其它数学软件所不能比拟的.它是诸多应用领域内处理A bel型等特殊类型微分方程的十分有效的计算工具.     

Fostering complex problem solving for diverse learners: engaging an ethos of intentionality toward equitable access

Complex problem solving is an effective means to engage students in disciplinary content while also furnishing critical non-cognitive and life skills. Despite increased adoption of complex problem-solving methods in K-12 classrooms today (e.g., case-, project-, or problem-based learning), we know little about how to make these approaches accessible to linguistically and culturally diverse (LCD) students. In this paper, we promote a conceptual framework, based on an ethos of intentionality, that supports culturally responsive teaching (CRT). We provide specific questions to guide teachers’ implementation of an ethos of intentionality, through critical reflection and meaningful action, and discuss a framework for culturally relevant practice that operationalizes key central tenets (e.g., high expectations, cultural competence, and critical consciousness). Finally, we include strategies that can help teachers and designers translate the principles of the CRT framework into action with a specific focus on complex problem solving in classrooms.

     

Using educational software to support collective thinking and test hypotheses in the computer science curriculum

This study analyses the discourse among the teacher and the students, members of three (3) small groups, who learn in the environment of a stand-alone computer. Two educational environments are examined: the first one, a “virtual laboratory” (Virtual scale-DELYS) and the second one, a computer modeling environment (ModelsCreator). The ‘Virtual Scale’ environment provides users with curriculum focused feedback and in that sense it can be categorized as directive. The ModelsCreator environment provides users merely with a representation of their own conception of curriculum concepts, so it can be categorized as an open-ended environment. The goal of this research is to exemplify the way the two educational software environments support (a) the development of collective thinking in peer— and teacher-led discussion and (b) students’ autonomy. The software tools of the “Virtual scale” along with the resources provided for the problem solving created an educational framework of hypothesis testing. This framework did not limit the students’ contributions by directing them to give short answers. Moreover, it supported the students’ initiatives by providing tools, representations and procedures that offered educationally meaningful feedback. Based on the above results, we discuss a new educationally important structure of software mediation and describe the way the two software activities resourced collective thinking and students’ initiatives. Finally, for each type of software environment, we propose certain hypotheses for future research regarding the support of collaborative problem solving.     

CONSIDERING MATERIALITY IN EDUCATIONAL POLICY: MESSY OBJECTS AND MULTIPLE REALS

Educational analysts need new ways to engage with policy processes in a networked world of complex transnational connections. In this discussion, Tara Fenwick and Richard Edwards argue for a greater focus on materiality in educational policy as a way to trace the heterogeneous interactions and precarious linkages that enact policy as complex manifestations. In particular, Fenwick and Edwards point to the methodologies of actor‐network theory (ANT), at least in its most recent permutations, as a useful approach to materiality in policy analysis. Published examples of educational policy studies drawing from these methodologies are beginning to appear. In reviewing these, we argue that ANT sensibilities help to make visible the sociomaterial assemblages—the “messy objects”—that enact policy, the micro‐negotiations that mobilize and stabilize (and destabilize) these assemblages, and the multiple ontologies that often coexist in policy environments. Fenwick and Edwards conclude with a discussion of methodological issues for working with concepts of ontological variance and messy objects in educational policy.     

Facebook: a potentially valuable educational tool?

This paper is concerned with the educational value of Facebook and specifically how it can be used in formal educational settings. As such, it provides a review of existing literature of how Facebook is used in higher education paying emphasis on the scope of its use and the outcomes achieved. As evident in existing literature, Facebook has been used mainly for social networking purposes through the establishment and collaboration of social groups in educational settings. However, a set of recent studies has exemplified how Facebook can provide an empowering means for achieving educational goals and supporting students develop crucial skills (e.g., writing, networking, collaborating) by serving as members in various learning communities. Concluding, we argue that Facebook can provide a valuable pedagogical tool that enhances student learning. Hence, future research towards further exploring Facebook’s use in educational settings is warranted for the purpose of producing scientific evidence about the ways in which Facebook could be utilized to enhance learning.     

Touch Screen Tablets and Emergent Literacy

The use of touch screen tablets by young children is increasing in the home and in early childhood settings. The simple tactile interface and finger-based operating features of tablets may facilitate preschoolers’ use of tablet application software and support their educational development in domains such as literacy. This article reviews current findings on using touch screen tablets in supporting early literacy development within a theoretical framework. The evidence suggests that tablets have the potential to enhance children’s emergent literacy skills (e.g., alphabet knowledge, print concepts, and emergent writing). However, the optimal use of tablets for early literacy learning may be dependent upon the type of scaffolding used by parent or teacher and the availability and quality of literacy tablet applications. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.