Constructivism is a theory of learning which claims that students construct knowledge rather than merely recieve and store knowledge transmitted by the teacher. Constructivism has been extremely influential in science and mathematics education, but much less so in computer science education (CSE). This paper surveys constructivism in the context of CSE, and shows how the theory can supply a theoretical basis for debating issues and evaluating proposals. An analysis of constructivism in computer science education leads to two claims: (1) students do not have an e#ective model of a computer, and (2) computers form an accessible ontological reality. The conclusions from these claims are that: (1) models must be explicitly taught, (2) models must be taught before abstractions, and (3) the seductive reality of the computer must not be allowed to supplant construction of models. Introduction The dominant theory of learning today is called constructivism. This theory claims that knowledge is actively constructed by the student, not passively absorbed from textbooks and lectures. Since the construction builds recursively on knowledge that the student already has, each student will construct an idiosyncratic version of knowledge. To

This article describes learning with media as a complementary process within which representations are constructed and procedures performed, sometimes by the learner and sometimes by the medium. It reviews research on learning with books, television, computers, and multimedia environments. These media are distinguished by cognitively relevant characteristics of their technologies, symbol systems, and processing capabilities. Studies are examined that illustrate how these characteristics, and instructional designs that employ them, interact with learner and task characteristics to influence the structure of mental representations and cognitive processes. Of specific interest is the effect of media characteristics on the structure, formation, and modification of mental models. Implications for research and practice are discussed Do media influence learning? The research reviewed in this article suggests that capabilities of a particular medium, in conjunction with methods that take advantage of

This article offers a plausible domain-general explanation for why some concepts of processes are resistant to instructional remediation although other, apparently similar concepts are more easily understood. The explanation assumes that processes may differ in ontological ways: that some processes (such as the apparent flow in diffusion of dye in water) are emergent and other processes (such as the flow of blood in human circulation) are direct. Although precise definition of the two kinds of processes are probably impossible, attributes of direct and emergent processes are described that distinguish them in a domain-general way. Circulation and diffusion, which are used as examples of direct and emergent processes, are associated with different kinds of misconceptions. The claim is that stu-Do Not Copy dents ’ misconceptions for direct kinds of processes, such as blood circulation, are of the same ontological kind as the correct conception, suggesting that misconceptions of direct processes may be nonrobust. However, students ’ misconceptions of emergent processes are robust because they misinterpret emergent processes as a kind of commonsense direct processes. To correct such a misconception requires a re-representation or a conceptual shift across ontological kinds. Therefore, misconceptions of emergent processes are robust because such a shift requires that students know about the emergent kind and can overcome their (perhaps even innate) predisposition to conceive of all processes as a direct kind. Such a domain-general explanation suggests that teaching students the causal structure underlying emergent processes may enable them to recognize and understand a variety of emergent processes for which they have robust misconceptions, such as concepts of electricity, heat and temperature, and evolution. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to Michelene T. H. Chi, Learning Research

One of the biggest challenges in helping students learn via CSCL is embedding their work in appropriate social contexts and helping create a culture of inquiry and collaboration. This article describes how design-based research allowed the deliberate evolution of a set of tools and practices to help students collaborate effectively. The SpeakEasy, one of the earliest Web-based discussion boards, was evolved from prior discussion tools, adapted to an Internet-based science learning environment, and evolved to work with both online and offline classroom projects and practices. Research conducted as part of the evolution shows how social cues can be used to help students develop an integrated understanding of science. Implications for the design of sociotechnical systems are discussed.

Several earlier investigations found that teaching standard textbook physics causes only moderate change in qualitative understanding. Manyinvestigations have tried to explain why teaching textbook physics results in so little learning of qualitativephysics. In contrast, we examined cases where learning did occur and tried to understand them, hoping that this might help us to understand how to support such learning. We developed computerized simulation models of both qualitative, conceptual problem solving and quantitative problem solving and used them to assess changes in students' qualitative knowledge as they learned textbook physics. In many cases, qualitative knowledge has been acquired on the basis of information explicitly presented in the textbook. However, we also found cases where learning of qualitativephysics took place on the basis of information only implicitly addressed in the instruction. Even more important, in various cases this newly acquired qualitative knowledge led to a less frequent use of incorrect qualitative pre-knowledge. This suggests that successfull students did not only learn what has been explicitly presented in the instruction. Rather, they did also learn by deriving and constructing information left implicit in the instruction, relating this information to their pre-knowledge and possibly re#ning and modifying their pre-knowledge in those cases where con#icts became aware.

By presenting two approaches to a well-known Piagetian experiment, the water-level task, I emphasize the importance of two complementary views of knowledge acquisition. The first is Piaget's developmental approach, often referred to as “stage theory, ” and the second, I call the “differential” approach. Stage theory captures what is common in people's ways of thinking at different levels of their cognitive development, while the differential approach captures what is different between individuals with similar cognitive abilities. Stage theory stresses the progressive de-contextualization of knowledge during ontogeny, while the differential approach provides a more situated perspective on knowledge construction. Finally, stage theory emphasizes the role of cognitive invariants in the structuring of local contexts, while the differential approach stresses the importance of local context in the construction of cognitive invariants. I suggest that integrating both perspectives helps illuminate the processes by which individual children make sense of their experience, gradually optimizing their interactions with the world.

We live in an era when everyday activities are shaped by environments that are not only artificial—almost half of humanity lives in cities—but also mediated. Emotional and cognitive activities in all levels and segments of society are increasingly vested in information-rich venues supported by television, radio, telephone, and computer networks. Even in very remote areas, hunters and farmers watch satellite broadcasts and play battery-operated video games. And in the depths of the Amazon River basin, tribes use tiny video cameras to document territorial encroachments and destruction of rain forest habitat. 10.1 OVERVIEW This chapter explores the metaphor of media as lived environments. A medium can be considered an environment to the extent that it supports both the perception of opportunities for acting and some means for acting. This environmental metaphor can help us understand how media users exercise their powers of perception, mobility, and agency within the constraints

In this paper, we describe five design principles that governed the design of the Connected Chemistry Curriculum and describe classroom research we conducted to evaluate the design. In the Modeling Across the Curriculum (MAC) project, high-school students explore computer models in science that are embedded in a supporting script. The Connected Chemistry curriculum focuses on topics in chemistry and employs multi-agent NetLogo models (Wilensky, 1999) to enable students in self-directed inquiry: manipulating and observing interactions between objects at the molecular level in order to gain insight into emergent patterns and macroscopic phenomena. We describe the curriculum, using examples to illustrate its design principles in action with a particular focus on three design principles: the importance of the process of modeling, making connections between different levels of description, differentiating between equilibrium and processes of change in the system.

implicit knowledge about motion

Abstract: In this paper, we discuss the design and study of a guidance and prompting system for a technology-based learning environment used in science classrooms. We focus briefly on how the tool has evolved through several years of iterative refinement, how the tool has been used by students in different curricular contexts for different epistemic practices, and how we as researchers can learn about students ' learning and cognition through use of the affordances of such software environments. In particular, scaffolding in the form of prompts and hints are investigated for supporting causal explanations of scientific evidence (or argumentation) and promoting more general reflection. The results imply that both kinds of scaffolds support students ' knowledge integration in important ways. The paper concludes with the claim that the guidance software helps students identify ways to improve their understanding by helping students think individually and collaboratively to provide alternative examples, thought experiments, and counter-evidence for consideration, and by providing a place to make their own thinking about these ideas visible and explicit. The paper also makes the broader claim that educational design studies such as the two reported here serve a unique role in identifying designed approaches that best support student learning while also informing our understanding of individual and social cognition in typical educational contexts.