More Like this

1. POSSIBILITIES AND PROMISES OF USING ARGUMENTATION IN THE TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, AND CODING

   Menke, J. (January 2021, Annual meeting program American Educational Research Association)

   In this presentation, the research team discussed teachers' facilitation of argumentation in teaching computer programming (or coding) and how it related to their epistemic beliefs about mathematics and science. The preliminary results showed that teachers engaged their students in both justificatory and inquiry arguments when teaching coding. This was not the case with respect to mathematics and science, in which teachers described engaging students either in justificatory or inquiry argumentation exclusively. The team proposes that these siloed uses of argumentation in mathematics and science relate to the teachers' epistemic beliefs about the disciplines, and their use of argumentation in coding builds on and goes beyond their experiences with argumentation in teaching mathematics and science. 

   more » « less
2. PATTERNS OF REASONING: WARRANTS IN ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS AND CODING ARGUMENTS

   Miller, Claire; Menke, Jenna; Conner, AnnaMarie (October 2021, Proceedings of the forty-third annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education)

   Olanoff, D.; Johnson, K.; Spitzer, S. M. (Ed.)

   Argumentation is widely used in teaching mathematics, but little research has been done on argumentation in teaching integrated mathematics and coding. As part of a larger study investigating collective argumentation in teaching mathematics, science, and coding, we classified the warrants given by elementary-age students who were engaged in argumentation in mathematics and coding. Three ma}or categories - calculation, visual, and unformalized knowledge - accounted for the majority of warrants given. Further analysis revealed differences in types of warrants when the primary focus of the argument was coding versus when the primary focus of the argument was mathematics. Our results suggest that expecting students to provide reasons for modifying their code, similar to what is expected in mathematics arguments, helps move them away from a trial-and-error to a more structured approach to coding. 

   more » « less
3. Impact of a Professional Development Course: Teachers’ Views of Using Collective Argumentation to Teach Coding

   Miller, Claire (January 2021, Proceedings of the annual meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators)

   Collective Argumentation Learning and Coding (CALC) is a research project that provides teachers with strategies to engage students in collective argumentation in mathematics, science, and coding. Thirty-two elementary teachers participated in a semester-long professional development course that included coding content and discussions about using collective argumentation across multiple disciplines. Ten teachers were selected for the enactment phase, in which classroom observations and coaching sessions were conducted during the semester after completing the professional development course. 

   more » « less
4. From terrified to comfortable: a fourth-grade teacher’s journey in teaching coding

   https://doi.org/10.51272/pmena.42.2020-323  

   Menke, Jenna; Miller, Claire (December 2020, Proceedings of the 42nd Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education)

   Sacristán, A.I.; Cortés-Zavala, J.C.; Ruiz-Arias, P.M. (Ed.)

   Collective Argumentation Learning and Coding (CALC) is a project focused on providing teachers with strategies to engage students in collective argumentation in mathematics, science, and coding. Collective argumentation can be characterized by any instance where multiple people (teachers and students) work together to establish a claim and provide evidence to support it (Conner et al., 2014b). Collective argumentation is an effective approach for promoting critical and higher order thinking and supporting students’ ability to articulate and justify claims. The goal of the CALC project is to help elementary school teachers extend the use of collective argumentation from teaching mathematics and science to teaching coding. Doing so increases the probability that teachers will integrate coding in regular classroom instruction, making it accessible to all students. This project highlighted Gloria (pseudonym), a fourth-grade teacher from Cohort 1 because of the extent to which she went from fear of coding to fluent implementation. Initially, Gloria was comfortable engaging her students in argumentation, explaining they already used it in mathematics with Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI). However, she was “terrified” about learning to code because she didn’t view herself as proficient with technology. She was willing to overcome her fear of coding because she saw the value in providing her students with coding experiences that would help them develop the necessary skills for our increasingly technological society. In the course of three months, Gloria’s instruction progressed from using simple coding activities to more sophisticated coding platforms. This progression in her coding instruction paralleled the change in her personal feelings about coding as she moved from “terrified” to “comfortable with it”. 

   more » « less
5. Collective Argumentation: Integration of Coding into Mathematics and Science Learning

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--32375  

   Foutz, Tim; Hill, Roger; Crawford, Barbara; Thompson, Sidney; Conner, AnnaMarie; Kim, ChanMin; Jackson, David (June 2019, In proceedings of the 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.)

   This project, titled Collective Argumentation Learning and Coding (CALC), is based on our belief that if teachers had an instructional approach that allowed them to teach coding alongside mathematics and science in integrated ways, then coding would become a mainstream subject taught in the elementary school curriculum. However, few practicing elementary school teachers have the academic backgrounds that allow them to teach coding in a manner that goes beyond allowing students to learn how to code through trial-and-error experimentation and as an additive learning activity such as an after-school program. Current content and practice standards call for the use of argumentation in the teaching of mathematics and science. This project is focused on extending the collective argumentation framework for the teaching of mathematics to the teaching of coding. Teachers at our partnering school district have completed the first design of a prototype CALC course where they used collective argumentation to learn how to code educational robotics. At the end of this course, the teachers developed lesson plans that were implemented in grades 3, 4 and 5.This paper and conference presentation focused on the research question, how do elementary school teachers use the CALC approach to support their students’ learning of coding, mathematics, and science content and practices? Overall, the implementation of the CALC approach demonstrated the growth of the teachers in their ability to teach coding as a reasoning process and as a means to integrate it into everyday classroom activities. 

   more » « less