Co-Designing Interdependence: Participation Pathways in Mixed-Ability Playground Activity

• In Event: AERA Research in Progress Roundtable Session Four
  In Invited Roundtable: Research-in-Progress RT016 (Saturday)

Abstract

This study examines how designing interdependence shapes participation in mixed-ability kindergarten playground activity. Drawing on co-designed playground activities from our teacher partners, triads of children complete three structurally distinct versions of the same deterministic ice-cream mapping game, where colors correspond to fixed numbers of button presses. The computational thinking content, materials, and success criteria remain constant; only the coordination structure varies. Conditions foreground mutual reliance through complementary action gates, distributed responsibility through interlocking roles, or collective meaning-making through shared mapping alignment. Using attempt cycles as the unit of analysis, I analyze video-recorded interaction to examine whether recruitment, uptake, and clarification/repair become more frequent and central within the structures designed to elicit them.

Authors

• Isabella Teresa Seccia, University of California - Irvine

• Jessica Blake-West, Boston College

• Kelsyann Cervera, University of California - Irvine

• Kat Allen, Tufts University

• Andres Sebastian Bustamante, University of California - Irvine

• June Ahn, University of California - Irvine