LIBE 477 Reading Review Part B: Resources
I started researching how to teach creativity and problem solving skills using technology in the classroom and have found a few articles that deal with this topic. All of these articles point out flaws in typical technology educational practices and suggest ways to better our teaching in this area.
The first article that I found is "Fostering Computational Thinking Through Educational Robotics: a model for creative computational problem solving" by Chevalier, Giang, Piatti, and Mondada in the International Journal of STEM Education. This article focuses on using educational robots to help develop computational thinking in elementary aged students. The study performed and subsequent article aimed to provide a working framework for robotic activities that is designed to foster computational and creative thinking within a problem solving scenario. The article outlines the phases of Creative Computational Problem Solving (CCPS) model as: Understanding the Problem, Generating Ideas, Formulating the Robots Behavior, Programming the Behavior, and Evaluating the Behavior. They state that most robotic activities in schools are presented to students without formal instruction or pre-instruction on the first three steps of CCPS and so students in that scenario jump to programming and evaluating and often get stuck in a trial and error loop. This was proven by the control group of students in the experiment. The test group of students was given explicit instruction on the phases of CCPS and was not allowed to work with the programming interface of the robotics for a set period of time forcing them to work through the first three phases of CCPS. These students had a better understanding of the problem and did not get stuck in trial and error loops but came up with a variety of creative solutions when faced with failure. All in all the article argues for explicit and specific instructional interventions and delayed access to programming interfaces in order to develop computational thinking skills with education robotics.
link: https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/docview/2429599401?accountid=14656&pq-origsite=summon
The second helpful article that I read was "Fostering Systematic Innovative Thinking and Problem Solving: Lessons Education Can Learn From Industry" by Barak and Goffer in the International Journal of Technology and Design Education. This article states that technology and technology education have always been intrinsically connected with creativity. The article acknowledges that although technology education programs often claim to foster creativity and innovation most do not. Instead it studies an example of creativity in industry to analyze what stimulants foster creativity. The big take-away from this study is that it found that systematic thinking along with teamwork and an encouraging environment fostered more creative thinking than a free form environment with no guidelines or restrictions. The article identified two main approaches to fostering creativity: 1. Encouraging creativity through creating an environment conducive to creativity and 2. Learning creative thinking, techniques, and problem solving in a more direct format. The article acknowledges that the first approach is often present in technology education but that the second one is absent.
link: file:///C:/Users/Andreo/Downloads/Barak-Goffer2002_Article_FosteringSystematicInnovativeT.pdf
While I read a few more articles, the only other one that I found helpful in expanding my thinking was "T/E Design Based Learning: assessing student critical thinking and problem solving abilities" by Shanta and Wells from the International Journal of Technology and Design Education. This article argued the value of an integrated STEM program into education. They claim that an integrated STEM program promotes active learning through design challenges and structured student discovery. This in turn develops problem solving skills and students from these programs are better able to pull upon resident knowledge to design creative solutions. This article offered fewer practical solutions than the previous two and will probably impact my daily teaching less, however the article documents and measures one of the ways that STEM education influences learning. It is a good article for defending the importance of a STEM or Technological Education Program within a school.
link: file:///C:/Users/Andreo/Downloads/Shanta-Wells2020_Article_TEDesignBasedLearningAssessing.pdf
https://gw2jh3xr2c.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=T%2FE+design+based+learning%3A+assessing+student+critical+thinking+and+problem+solving+abilities&rft.jtitle=International+journal+of+technology+and+design+education&rft.au=Shanta%2C+Susheela&rft.au=Wells%2C+John+G&rft.date=2020-07-07&rft.issn=0957-7572&rft.eissn=1573-1804&rft_id=info:doi/10.1007%2Fs10798-020-09608-8&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=10_1007_s10798_020_09608_8¶mdict=en-US
These look like three really interesting studies examining and understanding best practices involving design based instruction and some of the pitfalls and challenges. I think all three of these will be useful resources for your implementation of coding and tech instruction. Perhaps it might also be useful to examine some more non-traditional than academic journal sources, perhaps some websites, youtube videos or other practical and insightful resources that can support direct implementation. This is a fairly new topic in elementary circles and there are some valuable guides and assets out there that can help. Overall, a good start to building a useful collection of tools and references. Your links at the end are a little strange, one is trying to link to a file on your local computer.
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