technology to support complex learning

Technology to Support Complex Learning

Cindy E. Hmelo-SilverRutgers University

Overview

Complex LearningProviding Scaffolds and Creating ContextsProblem-based Learning: STELLARCreating contexts with the VMCComplex Systems: Systems and Cycles

Why Complex Learning?

We live in a complex and dynamic worldNeed to go beyond learning isolated knowledge and facts

Useable knowledgeSoft skills (Derry & Fischer, 2007)

Preparation for lifelong learning, reasoning, and problem solving (Fischer & Sugimoto, 2006)

Useable knowledgeTransfer, from a range of perspectives

Complex Learning

Such learning:Often situated in problem-based and inquiry learning environments (Hmelo-Silver, Duncan, & Chinn, 2007)Potential for excessive cognitive load (van Merriënboer, Kirschner, & Kester, 2003)

Appropriate scaffolding and contexts to deal with cognitive and social challenges

Scaffolding Complex Learning

Provide support to allow learners toCompetently do task Learn from task

Builds on notion of ZPD (Vygotsky, 1978)Scaffolding complex tasks through

StructuringProblematizing

Three primary kinds of scaffoldingCommunicating processCoachingEliciting articulation

Hard and soft scaffolds (Saye & Brush, 2002)

Technology Support for Complex LearningContextual support

Video, Hypermedia in STELLAR (Teacher Education)VideoMosaic Collaborative Repository (VMC)Systems and Cycles simulations

Collaboration spacesSTELLAR whiteboards, threaded discussion

Access to structured informationSTELLAR Knowledge WebVMC metadataSystems and Cycles hypermedia

Scaffolding through Interface and activity structurespbl online in STELLARVMC analyticSystems and cycles curriculum materials

Assessing complex learning

ProcessesCollaborative knowledge buildingEngagementLearning trajectories

OutcomesApplicationTransfer

Expert perspective (e.g., Barnett & Ceci, 2002)Preparation for future learning (e.g., Schwartz & Bransford, 1998; Schwartz & Martin, 2004)Actor-oriented transfer (Lobato, 2006)

Example 1: STELLAR

With Sharon Derry, Anandi Nagarajan, Ellina Chernobilsky

Adapting PBL to Teacher Education

Initial implementation (Hmelo-Silver, 2000)Paper casesOne wandering facilitator for 6-7 groups

LimitationsCases were oversimplificationOne wandering facilitator for 6-7 groupsDifficulty identifying fruitful learning issues because of limited and variable prior knowledge

STELLAR Learning Environment

Creating Context:Provide rich video cases of practice Concepts in context

Scaffolds PBL online activity structure: extend skilled facilitation resourcesKnowledge Web: CFT Hypermedia support for generating learning issues

Knowledge Web

Videocase Library

Example Problem

Group whiteboard

Findings (Derry et al, 2006)

Pre-post across institutions using video analysis task

Significant pre to post gains for both sites, with different implementations

Quasi-experimental design over 3 semestersParticipants:

101 STELLAR PBL students in 18 groups126 comparison students from Educational Psych subject pool Tracer concepts “Understanding” on video analysis

Moderate to large effects over three years Between group variability striking

Visual Representations for Contrasting Case Analysis (Hmelo-Silver et al, 2008)

Contrasting Cases (cont’d)

But what about other concepts?

Similar type of rubric developed to measure “transfer” (Hmelo-Silver et al, 2009) on 0-3 scaleComponents of transfer rubric:1. requires understanding, 2. involves activating appropriate prior knowledge

and applying something learned in a new situation, 3. involves abstraction and cognitive flexibility, 4. can be near or far transfer, and 5. can be preparation for future learning.

Quantitative Results

F (1,67) = 114.323, p < .001, d=2.55

Qualitative results: Understanding why

Large variability in groupsExamined STELLAR whiteboards for contrasting cases analyses

Engagement with “Transfer”Group A

6 female students who had some difficultyMean gain= 1.40, SD=0.89

Group B 6 female students, rarely needed any assistance Mean gain= 1.33, SD= 0.61

Group A

Discussed transfer in 3 of 4 problemsIn Problem 1, Jenny proposed explanation for enduring understanding that child in video developed:

“In the case of Brandon, he needed to have an understanding of how and why he was able to solve the block problem in order to transfer his ideas onto the pizza problem. "The first factor that influences successful transfer is degree of mastery of the original subject" (How People Learn, 53). Brandon was able to continue to solve such a problem because of his complete understanding of how he was able to arrive at the solution for the block problem.”

Group A: Encapsulating KnowledgeIn problem 2, Rina used the concept of transfer in thinking about assessment as she offered this proposal:

…The portfolio should have a final summary of the students' work and questions regarding the students' learning, so that the students can explain and evaluate their own thinking. (knowlege web [sic]) The students should be able to transfer their prior knowledge of concepts such as force and motion in order to create their vehicle, while also allowing the activity to expand on that knowledge. …another important facet of understanding is application (sic). Ms. Baker will know whether the students acquired enduring understanding by how much they can apply this knowledge to real world problems. One way of doing is to have Ms. Baker create another problem that will use the same concepts in a real world setting, and evaluating whether the students were able to apply the concepts they had learned.

Group B: Getting started

All students mentioned transfer in P1; 2-4 students in subsequent problemsKathy wrote:

…Second, Brandon was able to recognize a connection between the pizza problem and the tower problem that he did weeks earlier. Moreover, he made this connection relatively quickly and without much effort. He was able to show us, by using his chart and the manipulatives (blocks), exactly how the pizza problem mapped into the tower problem. His understanding of the pizza problem therefore facilitated a new, and deeper, understanding of the block problem; this process is called transfer. Brandon’s seemingly effortless use of transfer provides evidence that he understood the problem, because “transfer and wide application of learning are most likely to occur when learners achieve an organized and coherent understanding of the material.” (How People Learn, p. 238-239)…

Group B: Moving AlongOn later problems, fluid application of concept part of shared understanding

Micki writes:…another way to look for enduring understanding would be the students' transfer and application of principles of force and motion especially to real world situations. This would show the student's understandings of information previously and transfer it to the problem at hand, which is a real world problem that allows students to work with hands-on material.

Mimi followed this up by incorporating Micki’s comment and a previous proposal from another group member:

To put these two ideas together, [t]he teacher could bring together individual explanation and transfer as evidence of enduring understanding. An activity could be created at the end of each project that would ask the individual members of the group to use the principles gained to explain a real world scenario. Likewise, an activity could be designed to facilitate transfer of the instructional objectives. For instance, one of the objectives was learning the scientific inquiry process. The teacher could present a real world problem that would require the students to use the same scientific process to solve. (This would also facilitate transfer)

Lessons Learned

Technology:ScaffoldsContext

Complex measures:Knowledge in useMore and less productive collaborations

Example 2

with Carolyn Maher, Marjory Palius, Grace Agnew, Robert Sigley, Chad Mills

www.videomosaic.org

Video Mosaic Collaborative (VMC)

Preserves a major video data collection on student reasoningFrom diverse schools settingsTo be available as open sourceFrom 40 doctoral dissertations

Makes available new tools forTeachersEducatorsResearchers

From longitudinal/cross sectional studies spanning 25 yearsVideos following the same student cohort from elementary school through high school and beyondOver 4500 hours of video

Video Mosaic Collaborative(VMC)

Theoretical Perspective

Importance of making sense of students’ conversations and how tools mediate learning (Hmelo-Silver, 2003)Being aware of the contextual resources (media, other Ss, prior experience) that Ss use influence collaborative knowledge construction (Arvaja et al., 2006) Attending to social interactions in collaborative knowledge construction (Palincsar, 1998)

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An Online Enactment: Using Resources for Reasoning

Graduate mathematics ed hybrid courseFour online groups2+ week unit

In class problem solvingIndividual study of videos and related readingsGroup discussion questions

Online DesigneCollege CMS

Streaming video / linked papersMinimal online instructor interventionData

Postings from online threaded discussionsPre and post tests (math, Ss reasoning)

Research Questions

To what extent do videos and readings promote online discussion within and across groups?

How do learners relate practice to online discussion?

To what extent do Ss relate videos to readings in their online discussions?

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Coding

All posts coded for comments related toVideo (V)Readings (R)

Additional sub categories of comments relating videos/readings to:

Own problem solving (PV/PR)Others’ problem solving (OV/OR)Earlier interventions (EV/ER)Affect (AV/AR)Practice (TV/TR)

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Video: Ankur’s Challenge

Shows two groups of 10th graders (2 in one & 3 in other) working on the problem:

How many different block towers can be built, four tall, selecting from three colors of blocks such that the towers have at least one block of each color?

Approximately 8 minuteshttp://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore00000001201.Video.000062055

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Romina’s Proof

Discussion Questions

(1) Describe Romina’s strategy for solving the Ankur’s Challenge problem.

(2) In your opinion, is this solution a convincing one? Why or why not?

(3) According to the Yackel & Hanna chapter, both von Glaserfeld and Thompson equate reasoning with learning (p. 227). From this perspective, in what ways do explaining and justifying contribute to learning mathematics?

Results

Group Variability

Summary of Quantitative Analysis 

Across all groups:Studying videos generated reflections about own and classmates’ problem solving

Studying videos of students’ reasoning was enjoyable

But still left us with question of ways in which which Ss related resources to their practice

Connections

Bringing New Tools on Board: The VMCAnalytic

Create multimedia artifacts using the VMC repositoryNarrative with video for purposeVariety of uses by instructors, researchersGoal to classify and identify what differentiates high quality and low quality “analytics”Data sources: 27 VMCanalytics from several different classes and researchersWork very much in progress

Agnew et al, 2010; Hmelo-Silver et al., in press

How are VMC Analytics being used in different contexts?

Contrasting Cases

Looking deeper with contrasting case analysisExample 1: Analytic illustrating how students can move from particular to general

Concepts from both learning sciences and mathematics clearly articulatedIndicative of designer's understanding of students’ learning trajectory

Example 2: Analytic illustrates teacher questioning during early algebra exploration

Students claims not supported by video segments selected Textual descriptions of events were vagueVideo not well chosen for intended purpose of relationship of teacher questioning and student engagement

Word Clouds

VMCAnalytics coded for emergent themesExplored use of word clouds as a learning analytic

Mathematics Education ideasLearning Sciences ideas

Allow us to see dominant themes within the two areas of interest

Example 3: Systems and Cycles with Rebecca Jordan, Catherine Eberbach, Suparna Sinha, Lei Liu, Steven Gray, Wes Brooks, Yawen Yu

Systems and Cycles

GoalsLearning about ecosystemsReasoning about evidenceModeling

6 week curriculumCreating ContextsScaffolding complex learningUnderstanding how and why along with what

Creating Contexts

Aquarium Design

Eutrophication in local pond

Marines problems caused by ocean acidification

Simulations

Provide context for:DiscussionsScience practicesEngage with complex systems phenomena

Help focus on function and behaviorMake invisible visible and open for inspection

ScaffoldsConceptual representation

SBF CMPWorksheetsEMTTeacher

What are we finding?

Reliable pre to post test gains on systems ideaConnections across system levels

SBFMacro-micro

Individual and group variability

Considering complex learning, also requires considering:

Learning trajectories (Eberbach, Hmelo-Silver et al., 2012)Engagement with content (Sinha et al., 2012)Participation in practices (Eberbach & Hmelo-Silver, 2010; in prep)Transfer

Multiple perspectives (Yu, Hmelo-Silver et al., 2013; Sinha, in progress)

Learning Trajectories

Developing ecosystems understanding is multidimensional

AbioticBioticMacroMicroStructureFunction/Behavior

Dimensions may develop differently (Wilson, 2009)How are they influenced by particular aspects of instruction?Classroom microgenetic analysis (Chinn, 2006)

Coding Trajectories

Preliminary Results

Pre AA1 AA2 Post1

2

3

B:AM:MExtraneousSBFCoherence

Transfer…from an expert perspective

Often a goal of schooling– but hard to find in the labDo students transfer ecosystems concepts from one context to another?

Aquatic RainforestFocus on tracer concepts that were targets of instruction

PhotosynthesisCellular RespirationDecomposition

Coding

Results

Transfer….from actor-oriented perspectiveAOT perspective focuses on how students perceive similarities (Lobato, 2006; Sinha et al., 2010)

Pre and post interviews of 38 students from 2 schoolsTask

Label groups EMT model in terms of CMPLabel EMT model of

Labeling EMT

Results

Engagement

Work in progress (Sinha et al, in prep)Goal: Relating engagement to transfer

Social coordinationBehavioralTaskConceptualConsequential

Coding of video as students work on modeling and simulations

5 min intervals

Coding Conceptual-Consequential (CC) Engagement

High (3) Medium (2) Low (1)

Connects to other sources of knowledge and experiences

Reflects on larger question or problem (e.g. why do fish die).

Focused on content connections and conceptual understanding, but do not necessarily reflect or go back the central question or relate to the real world.

Focus on low-level declarative knowledge; facts

‘0 ‘ Code was assigned when teacher was addressing the entire class.

Designing for Understanding

Complex understanding

Learner activity

ScaffoldsContext

• Creating need to know

• Technology allows engagement with complex phenomena

• Video• Simulations

• Distributed scaffolding help manage complexity

• BUT need to examine both participation and outcomes

Thanks to:

National Science FoundationInstitute for Education Sciences

Questions? cindy.hmelo-silver@gse.rutgers.edu