journal :: Sampson, V., Clark, D. (2009). The impact of collaboration on the outcomes of scientific argumentation. Science Education, 93(3), 448-484.

This study examines three questions about the impact of collaboration during scientific argumentation. First, do groups craft better arguments than individuals? Second, to what degree do individuals adopt and internalize the arguments crafted by their group? Third, do individuals who work in groups learn more from their experiences than individu...

Tags: collaboration, science, argument, groups, teams, teamwork

journal :: Ror Malone, K., Barabino, G. (2009). Narrations of race in STEM research settings: Identity formation and its discontents. Science Education, 93(3), 485-510.

This paper discusses conceptions of identity in relation to science education and presents material from a series of interviews and focus groups with graduate students in science and technology. Given difficulties in retention and levels of significant participation by minority students indicated by aggregate data, the issue of race, as it infor...

Tags: race, science, minority, majority, graduate, technology, University, research

journal :: Anderson, D., Thomas, G. P., Nashon, S. M. (2009). Social barriers to meaningful engagement in biology field trip group work. Science Education, 93(3), 511-534.

This paper reports on a study that employed metacognition and social cognition theoretical frameworks to explore and interpret students' views of their cognitive roles and the nature of the mechanisms that they considered influenced and mediated their learning within small group contexts. An instrumental interpretive case study methodology was u...

Tags: metacognition, cognition, framework, role, learning, groups, teams, field trip, status, social, peers

journal :: Pramling, N. (2009). The role of metaphor in Darwin and the implications for teaching evolution. Science Education, 93(3), 535-547.

This article is about the role of metaphor in scientific knowledge formation and reasoning. These issues are studied by means of an example of the theory of evolution through natural selection. The premise is that the theory of evolution contains a set of problems regarding metaphor. A second premise is that these problems have to be handled in ...

Tags: metaphor, natural selection, evolution, Darwin, teaching, learning

conference :: Sanford, C. (2009, April). Family knowledge building: How designed learning environments can support conversations around complex topics like manufacturing. Poster session presented at Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

Designed learning environments like museums have the potential to change the way that families think and talk about scientific topics together in everyday contexts like the home. The current study examines the affect of a visit to a museum exhibit highlighting the processes of manufacturing on the ability of parents and children to talk about h...

Tags: Museum, family, conversation, home, process, ILER SIG poster, ILER SIG

conference :: Sanford, C. (2009, April). Facilitating museum to classroom connections: How the creation of classroom activities to supplement a museum visit transformed teachers' ideas about informal educational resources. Poster session presented at Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

Many teachers are unsure about how to best utilize museum educational resources. They do not think that approaches and strategies from informal learning environments apply to classroom settings (Melber & Cox-Peterson, 2005). Yet studies have shown that simple solutions such as exhibit orientation and conducting pre and post-visit activities to s...

Tags: Field trip, teacher, professional development, museum, informal learning research

journal :: Weigel, M., James, C., Gardner, H. (2009). Learning: Peering Backward and Looking Forward in the Digital Era. International Journal of Learning and Media, 1(1), 1-18.

Both in common parlance and within the academy, the word “learning” has broad and varied meanings. On the street, we apply the same term to a child who, as a result of bitter experience, will no longer tease an older, tougher peer, and to those who achieve the highest Latinate degrees after many years of study at the University. In the field of ...

Tags: social learning, digital media

journal :: Beals, L., Umaschi Bers, M. (2009). A Developmental Lens for Designing Virtual Worlds for Children and Youth. International Journal of Learning and Media, 1(1), 51–65.

Virtual communities have been extensively examined -- including their history, how to define them, how to design tools to support them, and how to analyze them. However, most of this research has focused on adult virtual communities, ignoring the unique considerations of virtual communities for children and youth. Young people have personal, soc...

Tags: internet, web, youth, community

journal :: Lewis, L., Black, R., Tomlinson, B. (2009). Let Everyone Play: An Educational Perspective on Why Fan Fiction Is, or Should Be, Legal. International Journal of Learning and Media, 1(1), 67–81.

This article makes a theoretical, legal, and moral proposition that fan fiction, a form of derivative writing based on existing media and popular culture, be considered fair use of copyrighted materials under U.S. copyright law. In our discussion, we draw from the U.S. legal system’s definition of fair use and significant cases related to copyri...

Tags: copyright, law, legal, education, learning, fiction, fan, fair use, literacy, technology, participatory learning

journal :: Pelletier, C. (2009). Games and learning: What's the connection?. International Journal of Learning and Media, 1(1), 83-101.

This article reviews how the relationship between computer games and learning has been conceptualized in policy and academic literature, and proposes a methodology for exploring learning with games that focuses on how games are enacted in social interactions. Drawing on Sutton-Smith's description of the rhetorics of play, it argues that the educ...

Tags: games, gaming, education, learning