Melissa Gresalfi - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Melissa Gresalfi

I read somewhere (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/tat/pdfs/dissertation.pdf) that the biggest obstacle... more I read somewhere (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/tat/pdfs/dissertation.pdf) that the biggest obstacle to completing a dissertation is psychological, and I have found that to be absolutely true. The night before I defended, I felt overwhelmed by the support I've received from so many people. You all give me self-assurance, happiness, and strength. Thank you. To Dr. Melissa Gresalfi, thank you for your clarity and confidence, even when I lost my own. I wouldn't be here without you. I was always listening, even when you probably thought I wasn't. You showed me generosity, support, and provided a model of the sort of academic I'd like to be, but I will never be as good as you are. I truly admire you and I'm grateful to know you! To my friends at Indiana University, but especially to my committee, Asmalina Saleh, Jake McWilliams, and Rafi Santo, thanks for going on this adventure with me! Thank you for challenging me, and being my PhD siblings and quals team. You all made this process feel less scary.

Debugging is fundamental to the theory, practice, and learning of computing, and recent research ... more Debugging is fundamental to the theory, practice, and learning of computing, and recent research suggests that a learning trajectory for debugging can be defined alongside trajectories for other core disciplinary practices. At the same time, other work in computing education has pressed the field to broaden its conception of the contexts where computational thinking occurs, identifying debugging activities and practices across diverse and multi-modal settings. In resolving this productive tension between systematically describing debugging and recognizing its broad reach, we argue researchers should attend to rich descriptions of situated debugging, especially among beginning debuggers. We present data from a week-long, free summer camp, Code Your Art, that engaged middle-school students in creating expressive computational visual effects. Here we find that students’ responses to debugging tasks varied sharply across tasks. We argue that debugging work emerges in interaction with fe...

The design of most learning environments focuses on supporting students in making, constructing, ... more The design of most learning environments focuses on supporting students in making, constructing, and putting together projects on and off the screen, with much less attention paid to the many issues—problems, bugs, or traps—that students invariably encounter along the way. In this symposium, we present different theoretical and disciplinary perspectives on understanding how learners engage in debugging applications on and off screen, examine learners’ mindsets about debugging from middle school to college students and teachers, and present pedagogical approaches that promote strategies for debugging problems, even having learners themselves design problems for others. We contend that learning to identify and fix problems—debug, troubleshoot, or get unstuck—in completing projects provides a productive space in which to explore multiple theoretical perspectives that can contribute to our understanding of learning and teaching critical strategies for dealing with challenges in learning...

This symposium aims to explore current research working toward conceptualizing and measuring prod... more This symposium aims to explore current research working toward conceptualizing and measuring productive disciplinary engagement (PDE) contextualized in diverse learning and project contexts. Disciplinary engagement is critical for fostering students’ deep, integrated understanding of STEM content and disciplinary practices. However, there are significant challenges to reaching this engagement quality, with CSCL environments providing opportunities and supports for engagement, but also posing challenges. This symposium aims to account for recent developments, as presenters showcase rich range in exploring application of PDE in diverse domains, grade bands, and learning contexts. The presentations also showcase a range of methods to analyze PDE as collective, situated, cross-contextual, dynamic, and generative. This symposium aims to explore current research working toward conceptualizing and measuring productive disciplinary engagement (PDE) contextualized in diverse learning and pro...

Research on classroom discourse has long underscored the integral role of social interaction in l... more Research on classroom discourse has long underscored the integral role of social interaction in learning, yet designing for and supporting meaningful classroom interaction often remains a challenge. This paper examines the ways that elementary school students are positioned and position themselves during activities aimed at promoting reflexivity about small-group math discussions. We examine one student group's participation in three such activities over eight months' time and specifically highlight the role of a mediating tool that was designed to support participation-centered rather than ability-centered conceptions of learning. Our aim is to examine how one focal group's math discussions were or were not shaped by the tool in ways that were consequential for productive collaborative engagement.

Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2020

ABSTRACT Background Educational video games are increasingly used in classrooms because they can ... more ABSTRACT Background Educational video games are increasingly used in classrooms because they can offer meaningful contexts for problem solving. However, educational video games bring together two historically disparate activities: school mathematics and video games. How these two activities complement, compromise, or contradict each other influences how mathematical activity takes shape during game play. Methods This paper offers a case analysis of two students: one who engages with the mathematics as intended by the game and is easily seen as on task, and a second who seems to reject the mathematics as intended by the game and is easily seen as off task. The analysis focuses on how each student’s frame of activity influences their mathematical activity during game play. Findings Findings suggest that, considered from their own frame of activity instead of the frame of the design, both students appear engaged in mathematical sensemaking, albeit in different ways: one as intended by the designer, the other as emerging from game play. Contribution By highlighting potential tensions between these official and unofficial frames, this paper contributes to continued reflections on task designs that incorporate youth culture such as video gaming to make mathematics classrooms more inviting to students.

Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 2009

Our primary purpose in this article is to propose an interpretive scheme for analyzing the identi... more Our primary purpose in this article is to propose an interpretive scheme for analyzing the identities that students develop in mathematics classrooms that can inform instructional design and teaching. We first introduce the key constructs of normative identity and personal identity, and then illustrate how they can be used to conduct empirical analyses. The case on which the sample analysis focuses concerns a single group of middle school students who were members of two contrasting classrooms in which what it meant to know and do mathematics differed significantly. The resulting analyses document the forms of agency that students can legitimately exercise in particular classrooms, together with how authority is distributed and thus to whom students are accountable, and what they are accountable for mathematically. In the final section of the article, we clarify the relation of the interpretive scheme to other current work on the identities that students are developing in mathematic...

Short Circuits, 2014

Short Circuits offers students opportunities to undertake physical computing projects, providing ... more Short Circuits offers students opportunities to undertake physical computing projects, providing tools and methods for creating electronic puppets. Students learn how to incorporate microprocessors into everyday materials and use them to enhance their language and writing skills with shadow puppet shows featuring their own DIY flashlights.

Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 2011

This article presents an analytical approach for documenting the identities for teaching that mat... more This article presents an analytical approach for documenting the identities for teaching that mathematics teachers negotiate as they participate in 2 or more communities that define high-quality teaching differently. Drawing on data from the first 2 years of a collaboration with a group of middle school mathematics teachers, the article focuses on a critical initial condition for teachers to improve their practice—determining that the effort required is worthwhile. The results speak directly to a central issue that arises when supporting teachers' efforts to improve their instructional practices: their motivation for affiliating with a vision of teaching that involves centering instruction on student thinking.

Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 2017

Digital games have demonstrated great potential for supporting students' learning across discipli... more Digital games have demonstrated great potential for supporting students' learning across disciplines. But integrating games into instruction is challenging and requires teachers to shift instructional practices. One factor that contributes to the successful use of games in a classroom is teachers' experience implementing the technologies. But how does experience with a game actually affect teacher practice? We explored these issues by comparing years 1 and 2 of a middle-school mathematics teacher's use of Boone's Meadow, a digital problem-solving game around ratio and proportion, in her classroom. While the two implementations were quite similar, the teacher was able to give more problem solving agency to students and use students' gameplay time much more productively in the second year, both for mathematical engagement and for immersing students in the narrative of the game. Findings point to the importance of considering the teacher's role when designing digital games for learning. Keywords Classroom discourse Á Instructional activities and practices Á Middle school education Á Technology Á Games for learning Á Mathematics education & Amanda Bell

Educational Technology Research and Development, 2015

This paper draws from and contributes to two bodies of research: how particular elements of game ... more This paper draws from and contributes to two bodies of research: how particular elements of game design support learning; and how particular characteristics of feedback impact student engagement. This paper reports findings from two rounds of a design-based research project that focuses on better understanding how feedback is integrated into, and impacts, students’ mathematical learning and engagement in the context of an immersive educational videogame. We examine whether and how an intentional change in the way that feedback was offered impacted the ways that students engaged with problem solving. Looking across two implementations, we found that consequential feedback appeared to support students’ mathematical engagement, and, specifically, that the timing of that feedback in relation to the entire problem solving process appeared to be important. Finally, we documented that changes in the design of the game were related to changes in the overall classroom activities. Overall, it seems likely that together, the game design change and the associated classroom practices change, resulted in the differences in student mathematical engagement that we observed.

Practical Approaches to Teaching in Virtual Worlds

This chapter considers the crucial role that the teacher plays in supporting successful use of im... more This chapter considers the crucial role that the teacher plays in supporting successful use of immersive technology in the classroom, focusing particularly on the use of an interactive, online, multiplayer videogame called Quest Atlantis. This chapter presents an account of successful strategies for integrating immersive technologies into teaching practice, such that the game does not replace the teacher, nor the teacher replace the game, but rather the two are integrated in their mutual support of student learning. The authors focus specifically on two distinct roles that teachers can play in leading whole-class discussions: attuning students to important concepts and connections in the game, and deepening opportunities to learn beyond what is afforded in game design. For each role, the authors present two contrasting cases with the goal of illuminating the central role that a teacher can play when integrating complex technologies into the classroom. Differences in the ways that teachers support their students while using games like Quest Atlantis are not trivial; it is argued that differences in teachers' support of whole-class conversations can create dramatically different opportunities for students to learn.

Games, Learning, and Society

Theory Into Practice, 2011

On the Horizon, 2009

PurposeThis paper aims to advance the idea of consequential engagement, positioning it as a neces... more PurposeThis paper aims to advance the idea of consequential engagement, positioning it as a necessary complement to the more common practices of supporting procedural or conceptual engagement. More than a theoretical argument, this notion is grounded in examples from the authors' work in enlisting game‐based methodologies and technologies for supporting such engagement.Design/methodology/approachThrough the presentation of two example designs, an elementary statistics curriculum and an undergraduate educational psychology course, the paper attends to the potential of narratively‐rich, multi‐user virtual environments for positioning students to critically engage academic content. In particular, it discusses the importance of designing spaces that afford opportunities to understand and apply disciplinary concepts in making sense of, and potentially transforming, conceptually‐revealing scenarios.FindingsThe paper discusses the role of consequential engagement in supporting meaningf...

Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 2006

Conceptual learning in maths and science involves learning to coordinate multiple representation ... more Conceptual learning in maths and science involves learning to coordinate multiple representation systems into smoothly functioning heterogeneous reasoning systems composed of sub-languages, graphics, mathematical representations, etc.. In these heterogeneous systems information can be transformed from one representation to another by inference rules, and learning coordination is learning how and when to apply these rules. Heterogeneous reasoning has a particularly important role to play in teaching students how to apply formalisms to real world problems, rather than merely teaching formalisminternal calculation. This paper analyses three learning incidents which happened in groups of students engaged in learning the mathematics and biology involved in modelling biological populations, from the perspective of the heterogeneous reasoning involved. Greeno, Sommerfeld & Weibe (2000) and Hall (2000) analyse incidents from the same curriculum intervention from other points of view, in this volume. We observe both learning successes and failures that cannot be understood without understanding the seams joining the representation systems involved, and the inference rules and operations required to get from one to another. One conclusion is that even apparently homogeneous natural language has to be seen as heterogeneous in its fully contextualised application.