Examining How Prior Knowledge Impacts Students' Discussions and Knowledge Construction During Computational Model-Building

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 1
  In Poster Session: Computational Thinking and the Learner and Educator Experience (San Diego)

Abstract

Student discussions have been shown to be beneficial to student learning (Chi & Wylie, 2014), however the impact of prior knowledge on these discussions is not fully understood. In this research, we analyze students’ synchronous spoken discussions to study how prior knowledge impacted group discussions and knowledge construction while constructing computational models of 1D and 2D motion. We present a case study analysis of two groups with students across a spectrum of prior knowledge. Our exploratory findings suggest that students with low prior knowledge greatly benefit from group discussions followed by individual model construction.

Authors

• Caitlin Snyder, Vanderbilt University

• Gayathri Narasimham, Vanderbilt University

• Nicole Hutchins, Vanderbilt University

• Gautam Biswas, Vanderbilt University

• Bernard Yett, Vanderbilt University