Matching Items (3)
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- All Subjects: Design-based Research
- All Subjects: out-of-school learning
- Creators: Zuiker, Steven
Description
As interest in making and STEM learning through making and tinkering continue to rise, understanding the nature, process, and benefits of learning STEM through making have become important topics for research. In addition to understanding the basics of learning through making and tinkering, we need to understand these activities, examine their potential benefits, and find out ways to facilitate such learning experiences for all learners with resources that are readily available. This dissertation is a study of children’s learning while tinkering inspired by the Educational Maker Movement. It is motivated by the projects that children playfully create with broken toys, art and craft resources, and other found objects, and the connections of such activities to learning. Adopting a sociocultural lens this dissertation examines eight to twelve-year-olds’ learning while tinkering in collaboration with friends and family, as well as on their own.
Using a case study methodology and studying interactions and transactions between children, materials, tools, and designs this study involves children learning while tinkering over a week-long workshop as well as over the summer in the Southwest. The three hallmarks of this study are, first, an emphasis on sociocultural nature of the development of tinkering projects; second, an emphasis on meaning making while tinkering with materials, tools, and design, and problem-solving; and third, an examination of the continuation of tinkering using newly acquired tools and skills beyond the duration of the workshop. In doing so, this dissertation contributes to the ongoing discussion of children’s playful tinkering, how and why it counts as learning, and STEM learning associated with tinkering. Implications for future learning and the ways in which tinkering connects to children’s everyday fabric of activities are considered.
Using a case study methodology and studying interactions and transactions between children, materials, tools, and designs this study involves children learning while tinkering over a week-long workshop as well as over the summer in the Southwest. The three hallmarks of this study are, first, an emphasis on sociocultural nature of the development of tinkering projects; second, an emphasis on meaning making while tinkering with materials, tools, and design, and problem-solving; and third, an examination of the continuation of tinkering using newly acquired tools and skills beyond the duration of the workshop. In doing so, this dissertation contributes to the ongoing discussion of children’s playful tinkering, how and why it counts as learning, and STEM learning associated with tinkering. Implications for future learning and the ways in which tinkering connects to children’s everyday fabric of activities are considered.
ContributorsParekh, Priyanka (Author) / Gee, Elisabeth R (Thesis advisor) / Zuiker, Steven (Committee member) / Jordan, Michelle (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Learning analytics application is evolving into a student-facing solution. Student-facing learning analytics dashboards (SFLADs), as one popular application, occupies a pivotal position in online learning. However, the application of SFLADs faces challenges due to teacher-centered and researcher-centered approaches. The majority of SFLADs report student learning data to teachers, administrators, and researchers without direct student involvement in the design of SFLADs. The primary design criteria of SFLADs is developing interactive and user-friendly interfaces or sophisticated algorithms that analyze the collected data about students’ learning activities in various online environments. However, if students are not using these tools, then analytics about students are not useful. In response to this challenge, this study focuses on investigating student perceptions regarding the design of SFLADs aimed at providing ownership over learning. The study adopts an approach to design-based research (DBR; Barab, 2014) called the Integrative Learning Design Framework (ILDF; Bannan-Ritland, 2003). The theoretical conjectures and the definition of student ownership are both framed by Self-determination theory (SDT), including four concepts of academic motivation. There are two parts of the design in this study, including prototypes design and intervention design. They are guided by a general theory-based inference which is student ownership will improve student perceptions of learning in an autonomy-supportive SFLAD context. A semi-structured interview is used to gather student perceptions regarding the design of SFLADs aimed at providing ownership over learning.
ContributorsLi, Siyuan (Author) / Zuiker, Steven (Thesis advisor) / Cunningham, James (Committee member) / Lande, Micah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
In this study, the current literature regarding student engagement and student voice were reviewed to explore the connection between these two classroom elements. Currently, frequently incorporating student voice in order to increase student engagement most commonly takes place at the high school and university levels. Thus, utilizing Finn’s (1989) participation-identification theory, this study set out to implement a practical design intervention in an elementary classroom to increase student engagement through the incorporation of student voice. Using Design-Based Research, I implemented a collaborative reflection process which allowed students, teacher/researcher, and co-educators to provide feedback on classroom task and participant structures. The feedback was then considered for further iterations of the task and participant structures. This was a pilot study of the collaborative reflection process and was implemented in a fourth-grade math classroom with 26 participants. Along with participating in the collaborative reflection process, the student participants also took a 26 question Learner Empowerment Measure to survey their feelings of identity with the classroom before and after the design intervention. After analyzing audio data gathered during the classroom tasks, as well as student feedback, it was found that student participation did increase due to the design intervention. However, there was no measurable difference in students’ feelings of identity with the classroom due to the collaborative reflection process. Future studies should consider implementing the collaborative reflection process in multiple classrooms across diverse activities during the school year.
ContributorsSanders, Elizabeth (Author) / Zuiker, Steven (Thesis advisor) / Jordan, Michelle (Committee member) / Henderson, J. Bryan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019