Teachers and Students Engage in Participatory Practices While Creating Games About Climate Change

• In Event: 63.084 - MTCC Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: 63.084-7 - Advances in Learning Environment Studies

Abstract

Through a theoretical framework emphasizing participatory pedagogies as compelling learning spaces for schools, this paper explores how 14 eighth grade science teachers thought about and enacted teacher practices intended to create a learning environment that empowers students and supports their learning as well as how students engaged in the process. Data were taken from a three-year design-based research project that developed, implemented, and researched a curriculum that integrated computing into adolescent learning about climate science and game design. Students created a game using Scratch to teach other younger students about climate change. Results reveal how teachers were uncertain about the value of participatory pedagogy with respect to climate content, whereas they were comfortable in supporting distributed expertise in Scratch programming.

Authors

• Michael Patrick Cassidy, TERC

• Gillian M. Puttick, TERC

• Eli Tucker-Raymond, TERC

• Casper Harteveld, Northeastern University

• Gillian Smith, Worcester Polytechnic Institute