The complexities of how people learn have plagued researchers for centuries. A range of experimental and non-experimental methodologies have been used to isolate and implement positive interventions for students' cognitive, meta-cognitive, behavioral, and socio-emotional successes in learning. But the face of learning is changing in the digital age. The value of accrued knowledge, popular throughout the industrial age, is being overpowered by the value of curiosity and the ability to ask critical questions. Most students can access the largest free collection of human knowledge (and cat videos) with ease using their phones or laptops and omnipresent cellular and Wi-Fi networks. Viewing this new-age capacity for connection as an opportunity, educational stakeholders have delegated many traditional learning tasks to online environments. With this influx of online learning, student errors can be corrected with immediacy, student data is more prevalent and actionable, and teachers can intervene with efficiency and efficacy. As such, endeavors in educational data mining, learning analytics, and authentic educational research at scale have grown popular in recent years; fields afforded by the luxuries of technology and driven by the age-old goal of understanding how people learn. This dissertation explores the evolution and application of ASSISTments Research, an approach to authentic educational research at scale that leverages ASSISTments, a popular online learning platform, to better understand how people learn. Part I details the evolution and advocacy of two tools that form the research arm of ASSISTments: the ASSISTments TestBed and the Assessment of Learning Infrastructure (ALI). An NSF funded Data Infrastructure Building Blocks grant (#1724889, $494,644 2017-2020), outlines goals for the new age of ASSISTments Research as a result of lessons learned in recent years. Part II details a personal application of these research tools with a focus on the framework of Self Determination Theory. The primary facets of this theory, thought to positively affect learning and intrinsic motivation, are investigated in depth through randomized controlled trials targeting Autonomy, Belonging, and Competence. Finally, a synthesis chapter highlights important connections between Parts I & II, offering lessons learned regarding ASSISTments Research and suggesting additional guidance for its future development, while broadly defining contributions to the Learning Sciences community.

The implementation of a learning environment for young African American males, called the Glitch Game Testers, was launched in 2009. The development of this program was based on formative work that looked at the contrasting use of digital games between young African American males and individuals who chose to become computer science majors. Through analysis of cultural values and digital game play practices, the program was designed to intertwine authentic game development practices and computer science learning. The resulting program employed 25 African American male high school students to test pre-release digital games full-time in the summer and part-time in the school year, with an hour of each day dedicated to learning introductory computer science. Outcomes for persisting in computer science education are remarkable; of the 16 participants who had graduated from high school as of 2012, 12 have gone on to school in computing-related majors. These outcomes, and the participants' enthusiasm for engaging in computing, are in sharp contrast to the crisis in African American male education and learning motivation. The research presented in this dissertation discusses the formative research that shaped the design of Glitch, the evaluation of the implementation of Glitch, and a theoretical investigation of the way in which participants navigated conflicting motivations in learning environments.

No description available.

<p>Cultivating cross-disciplinary understanding across science and engineering instruction will be essential to preparing the next generation of scientists to prosper in an increasingly interdisciplinary STEM workforce. This study reports on the culmination of a project that has been aimed at addressing this challenge by investigating how science and engineering students use the first law of thermodynamics, a guiding principle of the crosscutting concept of energy and matter, to transfer across disciplinary boundaries. A qualitative interview study was undertaken in which chemistry-, engineering-, and physics-major students were recruited and tasked with addressing familiar and unfamiliar first law problems that incorporated the systems, language, and notation of each respective discipline. Guided by the dynamic transfer framework, data were analyzed via a general inductive approach to categorize the contextual resources, or target tools, students leveraged to address the provided problems. This analysis revealed three unique guiding epistemologies whose frequency and character of emergence signify field-specific approaches to transferring into an unfamiliar disciplinary context. Connections are drawn to highlight the capacity of the derived findings and developed methodology to support cross-disciplinary understanding in the classroom and in future transfer of learning research.</p>

<p dir="ltr">This dissertation includes three manuscripts that explore the construct of teacher-readiness for integration of computational thinking (CT) skills in their teaching. The first manuscript is a retrospective observational study that builds a binomial regression model to predict teachers’ competence in CT procedural skills using factors such as number of professional development trainings taken, time since last training, subject taught, educational background, teaching experience, and whether they currently teach CT. This study provides insights for professional development providers to better design CT trainings. Some of these insights are then incorporated in the second study which is a design case of an online gamified professional development for K-12 teachers. The second paper provides design precedents for professional development providers of CT for better CT integration in K-12 education. The third study is a phenomenological multiple case study that investigates teachers’ CT self-efficacy, autonomous motivation, and goal relevance beliefs towards CT. It captures teachers’ understanding of what CT is and what its value is to the subjects that they teach. Together, the three studies holistically understand teacher readiness for integration of CT through teachers’ own perspective and provide key insights into how they can be better prepared for this change.</p>

Submitted by Cássia Santos (cassia.bcufg@gmail.com) on 2015-02-06T09:42:41Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Maria de Fatima Rodrigues Povoa - 2013.pdf: 2769021 bytes, checksum: b803bfc08dcaca27818c6329a572c846 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2015-02-19T11:55:52Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Maria de Fatima Rodrigues Povoa - 2013.pdf: 2769021 bytes, checksum: b803bfc08dcaca27818c6329a572c846 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-19T11:55:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Maria de Fatima Rodrigues Povoa - 2013.pdf: 2769021 bytes, checksum: b803bfc08dcaca27818c6329a572c846 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-02 / Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa - FUNAPE / This research aims understanding the conception of science teachers, who work in the metropolitan area of Goiânia on the program Full Time State School (EETI) and their implications for teaching and learning in this field. To understand the program, the object of study, we conducted a literary survey in books, theses, articles and dissertations on Full Time Education and Full Time school published in the last ten years: Paro (1988; 2008), Nóvoa (1999), Coelho (2002), Cavaliere (2002; 2007; 2009), Cachapuz et al (2005; 2006; 2008), Gadotti (2009), Guará (2006; 2009), Maurício (2001; 2009), Santos (2009), Silva (2011), Valadares (2011) e Ramos (2012). In light of this framework we reviewed documents that guide the implementation of the program and interviews with twelve science teachers. The research approach is qualitative (Bogdan; Biklen, 1994, Ludke; André, 2008). The systematization and analysis of data were based on Bardin (2009). The results indicate that the interviewed teachers conceives the State Program of School Full Time as a proposal with a strong focus on Full Time School welfare as a proposal with as strong focus on welfare, intended to protect, to keep the child, in addition to meeting the needs of parents who need to parents who need to work outside. On the influence of the Science program on the teaching and learning found teachers do not differentiate their work in the ETI that performed in schools part time. Integrated planning is a shortcoming because teachers plan their classes in isolation. The lack of school´ infrastructure for the operation of the program is sharp limiting factor in the speech of the majority of the teachers interviewed. / A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo geral desvelar a concepção dos professores de Ciências Naturais inseridos na rede Estadual, região Metropolitana de Goiânia, sobre o Projeto de Escola Estadual de Tempo Integral (EETI) e suas implicações no ensinoaprendizagem desta área de conhecimento. Para compreender o objeto deste estudo realizamos um levantamento bibliográfico em livros, artigos, teses e dissertações sobre Educação Integral e Escola de Tempo Integral publicados nos últimos dez anos: Paro (1988; 2008), Nóvoa (1999), Coelho (2002), Cavaliere (2002; 2007; 2009), Cachapuz et al (2005; 2006; 2008), Gadotti (2009), Guará (2006; 2009), Maurício (2001; 2009), Santos (2009), Silva (2011), Valadares (2011) e Ramos (2012). À luz desse referencial analisamos documentos que direcionaram a implantação do projeto e realizamos entrevistas com 12 (doze) professores de Ciências que trabalham na EETI. A metodologia da pesquisa é qualitativa (Bogdan; Biklen,1994, Ludke; André, 2008). A sistematização e a análise dos dados foram fundamentadas em Bardin (2009). Os resultados encontrados indicam que os professores entrevistados concebem a Escola Estadual de Tempo Integral como uma proposta com forte enfoque assistencialista, destinada a proteger e guardar a criança, além de atender às necessidades de pais que precisam trabalhar fora de casa. Sobre a influência do projeto no que se refere ao ensino-aprendizagem de Ciências, constatamos que os professores não diferenciam o seu trabalho na ETI daquele realizado em escolas de regime parcial. O planejamento integrado constitui uma lacuna, pois os professores planejam suas aulas de forma isolada. A falta de infraestrutura das escolas para o funcionamento do projeto constitui fator acentuado de limitação, segundo o discurso dos professores entrevistados.

Quel intérêt les études littéraires auraient-elles à remettre au goût du jour l’apprentissage par cœur de textes littéraires ? Le par cœur semble aujourd’hui une pratique pédagogique de nostalgiques et de réactionnaires. On lui reproche de faire moins bien et moins rapidement ce que la technologie fait sans effort. On l’accuse aussi de ne pas favoriser l’intelligence : elle est un travail mécanique de perroquet dans lequel la compréhension et l’esprit critique interviendraient peu. Ces critiques, qui peuvent paraître de bon sens, sont en fait selon nous le produit de trois logiques ou pensées qui dominent la pensée occidentale : la pensée matérialiste, la logique marchande et la logique de domination du masculin sur le féminin. Elles imprègnent tellement nos croyances et nos cadres cognitifs qu’on a du mal à penser en dehors d’elles. Nous confrontons dans cette thèse ces trois logiques à la question du par cœur : en interrogeant leurs présupposés et en mettant au jour certaines de leurs failles, on s’aperçoit alors que le par cœur, en fonction de la manière dont on le pratique, peut revivifier les études littéraires. / Why would it be worthwhile for literary studies to reintroduce learning by heart of literary texts? Learning by heart now appears to be an old-fashioned method, only practiced by nostalgic, reactionary teachers. It has been criticized for its lesser learning efficiency and velocity as compared to what technology has made available for fewer efforts. Another reason why it has been condemned is that it would impede the development of intelligence, as it is thought to be a parrot-like, mechanical exercise requiring very little understanding or critical thinking. These seemingly well-founded criticisms are, we argue, the product of three logics – or thoughts – dominating the Western thought, namely: the materialist thought, the mercantile logic, and the logic of the domination of the masculine over the feminine. Our beliefs and outlines of thought are so imbued with these three principles, that we are reluctant to depart from their influences to think. In this dissertation, we confront the three above-mentioned logics to the “learning-by-heart” issue. By questioning their presuppositions and shedding light on some of their flaws, we find out that learning by heart, depending on how it is carried out, helps revitalize literary studies.

A key challenge of the learning sciences is moving research results into practice. Educators on the front lines perceive little value in the outputs of education research and demand more “usable knowledge”. This work explores the potential instead of usable artifacts to translate knowledge into practice, adding scientists as stakeholders in an interaction design process. The contributions are two effective systems, the scientific and contextual principles in their design, and a research model for scientific research through interaction design. College student study practices are the domain chosen for the development of these methods. Iterative ethnographic fieldwork identified two systems that would be likely to advance both learning in practice and knowledge for applying the employed theories in general. Nudge was designed to improve students’ study time management by regularly emailing students with explicit recommended study activities. It reconceptualizes the syllabus into an interactive guide that fits into modern students' attention streams. Examplify was designed to improve how students learn from worked example problems by modularizing them into steps and scaffolding their metacognitive behaviors though problem-solving and self-explanation prompts. It combines these techniques in a way that is exceedingly easy to author, using existing answer keys and students' self-evaluations. Nudge and Examplify were evaluated experimentally over a full semester of a lecture-based introductory chemistry course. Nudge messages increased students’ sense of achievement and interacted with students’ existing time management skills to improve exam grades for poorer students. Among students who could choose whether to receive them, 80% did. Students with access to Examplify had higher exam scores (d=0.26), especially on delayed measures of learning (d=0.40). A key design decision in Examplify was not clearly resolvable by existing theory and so was tested experimentally by comparing two variants, one without prompts to solve the steps. The variant without problem solving was less effective (d=0.77) and less used, while usage rates of the variant with problem solving increased over time. These results support the use of the design methods employed and provide specific empirical recommendations for future designs of these and similar systems for implementing theory in practice.

This research examines new systems of information production that are made possible by participatory media. Such systems bring about two critical information literacy needs for the general public: to understand new systems in order to assess their products and to become adept participants in the construction of public information spaces. In this dissertation, I address both of these needs and propose a view of information literacy that situates the information literate as both consumer and producer. First, I examine a popular example of a new publishing system, Wikipedia, and present research that explains how the site is organized and maintained. I then turn my attention to the classroom and describe three iterations of design-based research in which I built new wiki tools to support publication activities and information literacy learning in formal educational contexts. I use the rhetorical notion of genre as an analytic lens for studying the use and impact of these new media in schools. Classroom findings suggest that the affordances of a wiki as an open, transparent publishing medium can support groups of writers in building a shared understanding of genre as they struggle with an unfamiliar rhetorical situation. I also demonstrate how writing on a public wiki for a broad audience was a particularly useful writing experience that brought about opportunities for reflection and learning. These opportunities include transforming the value of citation, creating a need to engage deeply with content, and providing both a need and a foundation for assessing information resources.

<p> Skilled trades are in demand across many industries and many countries. Skilled trades refer to occupations that require training and proficiency in a specialized field, such as weld?ing, carpentry, or mechanics. The challenge is upskilling workers to become suited for these positions. One way training might be made more accessible is through low cost VR applica?tions as they can provide a ’learn by doing’ modality that is effective for learning motor skills, and also engaging for providing a holistic training experience. In this thesis, design guide?lines and a methodology for creating training programs that target hand tool based skills are laid out, tested, and refined for future usage. Working with content experts, a learning plan was developed via the backward design methodology, evaluated in a user study, and then applied to a second use case. The results of the user study showed that those who trained with VR were able to perform the prescribed task more quickly and with less mistakes. The implication of the second use case is that the established guidelines are versatile enough to be applied to other industries and simple enough to adapt industry specific knowledge to. The hope is that this work can help bridge the gap between the theoretical possibilities of VR training, effective training methodology, and real world application. </p>