To guide or not to guide: issues in the sequencing of pedagogical structure in computational model-based learning

Abstract

This research explores issues related to the sequencing of structure that is provided as pedagogical guidance. A study was conducted that involved grade 10 students in Singapore as they learned concepts about electricity using four NetLogo Investigations of Electricity agent-based models. It was found that the low-to-high structure learning sequences group participants scored significantly higher on the posttest assessments of conceptual and procedural understanding of electricity concepts, whereas the high-to-high structure learning sequences showed no significant changes from pretest to posttest. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to other research into the sequencing and design of pedagogical structure and guidance in the literature.

Keywords:

• pedagogical structure
• computer model-based learning
• instructional guidance
• science education
• learning designs

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Erratum

Erratum

Acknowledgements

This research was funded in part by the Learning Science Laboratory at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (Grant #: LSL 16/06 ZBH). We especially thank Dr Manu Kapur for stimulating theoretical and methodological discussions. Dr Pratim Sengupta provided very helpful feedback on the development and use of the NIELS models and on an earlier version of this manuscript. In addition, Professor Uri Wilensky and other staff at the Center for Connected Learning at Northwestern University provided valuable research perspectives. Finally, we thank the Singapore science teachers and students with whom we worked on this project, and the feedback from anonymous reviewers.

Notes on contributors

Michael J. Jacobson, PhD, is a Professor and Chair of Education in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. His research has focused on the design of learning technologies to foster deep conceptual understanding, conceptual change, and knowledge transfer in challenging conceptual domains.

Beaumie Kim's work is focused on using scientists' resources and tools (especially Earth Sciences) for the research and development of learning resources and tools using technology. She carries out her research in collaboration with teachers and students as design partners, and by observing their interactions, discourse, and artifacts. She is trained as a physicist and educational researcher.

Suneeta Pathak recently worked at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. She enjoys working in all the contexts where teaching and learning of science, especially physics, happens.

BaoHui Zhang is a professor at the Institute of Education, Nanjing University, China. His current research foci are designing and assessing interactive environments when using computer-based modeling and visualization or mobile technologies for inquiry-based science learning.

Notes

Note: Student instructions were to use the NIELS model of Ohm's law to fill in the boxes in order to answer these worksheet questions.

Note: Rows in italics indicate a significant difference between the groups.

1. The references for these various instructional approaches listed in this sentence are drawn from Kirschner et al. (2006).

2. “Structure” may be broadly conceived in a variety of forms such as structuring a problem, scaffolding, instructional facilitation, providing worksheets or scripts, and so on.

3. We revisit Klahr and Nigam in the discussion of our findings and challenge their interpretation of their results.

4. This section elaborates on earlier considerations of the sequencing of pedagogical structure by the first and second authors (Jacobson, Kim, Miao, Shen, & Chavez, 2010).

5. The posttest had five fewer multiple choice and short answer items than the pretest. This was done to slightly shorten that section of the posttest given there were new transfer items for the students to answer.

6. For effect sizes, a partial η² = .01 is considered small, .06 medium, and .14 large.

7. For a complete discussion of the qualitative analyses, see Pathak, Kim, Jacobson, and Zhang (2011).

8. The use of “lah” is a Singaporean colloquial expression that comes at the end of a sentence to provide an emphasis.