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1. Co‐designing teacher support technology for problem‐based learning in middle school science

   https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13363  

   Hutchins, Nicole M. ; Biswas, Gautam ( July 2023 , British Journal of Educational Technology)

   This paper provides an experience report on a co‐design approach with teachers to co‐create learning analytics‐based technology to support problem‐based learning in middle school science classrooms. We have mapped out a workflow for such applications and developed design narratives to investigate the implementation, modifications and temporal roles of the participants in the design process. Our results provide precedent knowledge on co‐designing with experienced and novice teachers and co‐constructing actionable insight that can help teachers engage more effectively with their students' learning and problem‐solving processes during classroom PBL implementations.

   What is already known about this topic

   Success of educational technology depends in large part on the technology's alignment with teachers' goals for their students, teaching strategies and classroom context.

   Teacher and researcher co‐design of educational technology and supporting curricula has proven to be an effective way for integrating teacher insight and supporting their implementation needs.

   Co‐designing learning analytics and support technologies with teachers is difficult due to differences in design and development goals, workplace norms, and AI‐literacy and learning analytics background of teachers.

   What this paper adds

   We provide a co‐design workflow for middle school teachers that centres on co‐designing and developing actionable insights to support problem‐based learning (PBL) by systematic development of responsive teaching practices using AI‐generated learning analytics.

   We adapt established human‐computer interaction (HCI) methods to tackle the complex task of classroom PBL implementation, working with experienced and novice teachers to create a learning analytics dashboard for a PBL curriculum.

   We demonstrate researcher and teacher roles and needs in ensuring co‐design collaboration and the co‐construction of actionable insight to support middle school PBL.

   Implications for practice and/or policy

   Learning analytics researchers will be able to use the workflow as a tool to support their PBL co‐design processes.

   Learning analytics researchers will be able to apply adapted HCI methods for effective co‐design processes.

   Co‐design teams will be able to pre‐emptively prepare for the difficulties and needs of teachers when integrating middle school teacher feedback during the co‐design process in support of PBL technologies.

    

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2. Supporting collaborative classroom networks through technology: An actor network theory approach to understanding social behaviours and design

   https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13274  

   Kumar, Vishesh ; Tissenbaum, Mike ( September 2022 , British Journal of Educational Technology)

   This paper presents an implementation of Connected Spaces (CxS)—an ambient help seeking interface designed and developed for a project‐based computing classroom. We use actor network theory (ANT) to provide an underutilized posthumanist lens to understand the creation of collaborative connections in this Computational Action‐based implementation. Posthumanism offers an emerging and critical extension to sociocultural perspectives on understanding learning, by pushing us to decenter the human, and consider the active roles that human and non‐human entities play in learning environments by actively shaping each other. We analyse how students in this class adjusted their help‐seeking and collaborative habits following the introduction of CxS, a tool designed to foster (more inter‐group) collaboration. ANT proposes generalized symmetry—a principle of considering human, non‐human and more than human entities with equivalent and comparable agency, leading to describing phenomena as networks of actors in different evolving relationships with each other. Analysing collaborative interactions as fostered by CxS using an ANT approach supports design‐based research—an iterative design revision process highlighting understandings about design as well as learning—by providing a temporal and informative lens into the relationship between actors and tools within the environment. Our key findings include a framing of technologies in classrooms as bridgingagentic gapsbetween students and becoming actors engaging in different behaviours; learners enacting new agencies through technologies (for instance a more comfortable non‐intrusive help seeker), and the need for voicing and teachers to connect help networks in CxS equipped classrooms.

   What is already known about this topic

   Collaborative learning is a valuable skill and practice; opportunities to mentor others are critical in empowering minoritized learners, especially in STEM and computing disciplines.

   School norms solidify a power and expertise hierarchy between teachers and learners and fail to productively support learners in learning from each other.

   Additionally, lack of awareness about peers' knowledge is a common hindrance in students knowing who to ask for help and how.

   What this paper adds

   An example of a designed interface called Connected Spaces with potential to foster more inter‐student collaboration, especially outside of mandated within‐group collaboration—in the form of cross‐group help seeking and help giving.

   A design based research study using actor network theory highlighting the limitations of Connected Spaces in sparking notable behaviour change among students by itself but being retooled as a teacher support tool in enabling cross‐group collaborations.

   Presenting conceptions of collaboration through technologies as bridging agentic gaps and acting with new agencies in performing help‐seeking related actions.

   Provoking the idea of testing emerging technologies in classrooms along with sharing our analyses and reflections with the classroom as a key idea in computing education—surfacing the gap between designed intentions and the different kinds of extra social work needed in the on‐ground success of different technologies.

   Implications for practice and/or policy

   Designers and researchers should create and test more interfaces alongside teachers across different classrooms and contexts aimed at supporting different kinds of voluntary collaborative interactions.

   Curricula, standards and school practices should further center providing students with opportunities to engage as mentors and build communities of learning across disciplines to empower minoritized students.

   Researchers engaging in design based research should consider using more posthumanist lenses to examine educational technologies and how they affect change in learning environments.

    

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3. Mobile app features that scaffold pre‐school learning: Verbal feedback and leveling designs

   https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13055  

   Callaghan, Melissa N. ; Reich, Stephanie M. ( December 2020 , British Journal of Educational Technology)

   Guiding hints and challenge can help scaffold learners to progress beyond what they would achieve independently. The interactive and adaptive capabilities of mobile devices allow educational applications (apps) to support learning through scaffolding designs. However, little research has tested the effects of scaffolding features in apps on young children’s learning. Using a 3 × 2 between‐subjects design, this study experimentally tests how three types of app feedback (nonverbal sounds, verbal encouragement, or scaffolded verbal hints) and two types of leveling (gradual vs. random‐ordered challenge) influence 4–5‐year‐old children’s learning of novel words (N = 240). Results showed that scaffolded feedback was especially useful when provided at the beginning of app play (p < .01), and scaffolded leveling through gradual increases in difficulty supported faster and more accurate responses than random order challenge (p < .001).

   What is already known about this topic

   Researchers have worked to apply what we know about traditional in‐person teaching with young learners and how that might translate to digital platforms.

   Parent and teacher scaffolding has been shown to successfully help young children learn. Guidance through increased difficulty and explanatory feedback can help learners gradually build their skills and reflect more deeply on the content they are learning.

   What this paper adds

   This study adds to the newly growing collection of experiments testing the design features of educational pre‐school apps.

   Findings show that scaffolding through educational app feedback and leveling can support young children learning.

   Results also show that the impact of scaffolding can depend on when the guidance is presented during app play – at the very beginning of play versus later on.

   Implications for practice and/or policy

   Findings can help educators and other consumers identify which types of apps are better for scaffolding young children’s learning.

   Suggestions are provided to support educational app developers in designing products that are truly effective.

   Findings suggest that combinations of app designs may differently impact young children’s learning, providing next step testing conditions for educational app designs.

    

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4. Tensions and synergies in arts‐integrated data literacy instruction: Reflections on four classroom implementations

   https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13257  

   Matuk, Camillia ; DesPortes, Kayla ; Amato, Anna ; Vacca, Ralph ; Silander, Megan ; Woods, Peter J. ; Tes, Marian ( July 2022 , British Journal of Educational Technology)

   Data‐art inquiry is an arts‐integrated approach to data literacy learning that reflects the multidisciplinary nature of data literacy not often taught in school contexts. By layering critical reflection over conventional data inquiry processes, and by supporting creative expression about data, data‐art inquiry can support students' informal inference‐making by revealing the role of context in shaping the meaning of data, and encouraging consideration of the personal and social relevance of data. Data‐art inquiry additionally creates alternative entry points into data literacy by building on learners' non‐STEM interests. Supported by technology, it can provide accessible tools for students to reflect on and communicate about data in ways that can impact broader audiences. However, data‐art inquiry instruction faces many barriers to classroom implementation, particularly given the tendency for schools to structure learning with disciplinary silos, and to unequally prioritize mathematics and the arts. To explore the potential of data‐art inquiry in classroom contexts, we partnered with arts and mathematics teachers to co‐design and implement data‐art inquiry units. We implemented the units in four school contexts that differed in terms of the student population served, their curriculum priorities, and their technology infrastructure. We reflect on participant interviews, written reflections, and classroom data, to identify synergies and tensions between data literacy, technology, and the arts. Our findings highlight how contexts of implementation shape the possibilities and limitations for data‐art inquiry learning. To take full advantage of the potential for data‐art inquiry, curriculum design should account for and build on the opportunities and constraints of classroom contexts.

   What is already known about this topic

   Arts‐integrated instruction has underexplored potential for promoting students' data literacy, including their appreciation for the role of context and real‐world implications of data and for the personal and social relevance of data.

   Arts‐integrated instruction is difficult to implement in school contexts that are constrained by disciplinary silos.

   What this paper adds

   Descriptions of four data‐art inquiry units, which take an arts‐integrated approach to data literacy.

   Examples of the synergies and tensions observed between data literacy, technology, and the arts during classroom implementation in four different schools.

   Reflections on the role of school contexts in shaping disciplinary synergies and tensions.

   Implications for practice and/or policy

   Arts‐integration offers opportunities for data literacy learning.

   Consideration of the unique resources and constraints of classroom contexts is critical for fulfilling the promises of data‐art inquiry learning.

   There is a need to develop school support specific to arts‐integrated data literacy instruction.

    

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5. A human‐centred learning analytics approach for developing contextually scalable K‐12 teacher dashboards

   https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13383  

   Wiley, Korah ; Dimitriadis, Yannis ; Linn, Marcia ( September 2023 , British Journal of Educational Technology)

   This paper describes a Human‐Centred Learning Analytics (HCLA) design approach for developing learning analytics (LA) dashboards for K‐12 classrooms that maintain both contextual relevance and scalability—two goals that are often in competition. Using mixed methods, we collected observational and interview data from teacher partners and assessment data from their students' engagement with the lesson materials. This DBR‐based, human‐centred design process resulted in a dashboard that supported teachers in addressing their students' learning needs. To develop the dashboard features that could support teachers, we found that a design refinement process that drew on the insights of teachers with varying teaching experience, philosophies and teaching contexts strengthened the resulting outcome. The versatile nature of the approach, in terms of student learning outcomes, makes it useful for HCLA design efforts across diverse K‐12 educational contexts.

   What is already known about this topic

   Learning analytics that are aligned to both a learning theory and learning design support student learning.

   LA dashboards that support users to understand the associated learning analytics data provide actionable insight.

   Design‐based research is a promising methodology for Human‐Centred Learning Analytics design, particularly in the K‐12 educational context.

   What this paper adds

   Leveraging a longstanding, yet fluid, research‐practice partnership is an effective design‐based research adaptation for addressing the high variation in instructional practices that characterize K‐12 education.

   Using both quantitative and qualitative data that reflects students' developing knowledge effectively supports teachers' inquiry into student learning.

   Teachers' use of learning analytics dashboards is heavily influenced by their perspectives on teaching and learning.

   Implications for practice and/or policy

   Impact on student learning outcomes, alongside usability and feasibility, should be included as a necessary metric for the effectiveness of LA design.

   LA dashboard developers should both leverage learning data that reflect students' developing knowledge and position teachers to take responsive pedagogical action to support student learning.

   LA researchers and developers should utilize a long‐term, yet fluid, research‐practice partnership to form a multi‐stakeholder, multidisciplinary design team for Human‐Centred Learning Analytics design.

    

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