Category: Working Papers

Authors: Mitchell J. Nathan and Billie Eilam October 2005, 10 pp. Abstract: This paper explores the role of co-expressivity of drawing, speech, and gesture as sixth graders strive for intersubjectivity in their attempts to communicate solutions to a spatial reasoning task. Several obstacles to intersubjectivity are documented, particularly conflicts between a literal and geometric interpretation, …

Authors: Richard Halverson, Jeffrey Grigg, Reid Prichett, Chris Thomas September 2005, 37 pp. Abstract: The recent demand for schools to respond to external accountability measures challenges school leaders to create school instructional systems that use data to guide the practices of teaching and learning. This paper considers how local school leaders build data-driven instructional systems …

Author: David Williamson Shaffer September 2005, 29 pp. Abstract: This paper looks at the participant structures of a learning environment and proposes an alternative level of analysis for understanding how frameworks of participation help develop frameworks for thinking. Building on Goffman’s frame analysis and Schon’s work on reflective practice, I analyze participant structures of a …

Authors: David Williamson Shaffer, James Paul Gee September 2005, 18 pp. Abstract: In his recent bestseller The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman argues that countries like the United States can no longer compete in the global economy on the basis of making and selling commodities. Their competitive edge increasingly comes from how well they produce products, …

Authors: David Williamson Shaffer, Katherine A. Clinton September 2005, 22 pp. Abstract: In this paper, we argue that new computational tools problematize the concept of thought within current sociocultural theories of technology and cognition by challenging the traditional position of privilege that humans occupy in sociocultural analyses. We draw on work by Shaffer, Kaput, and …

Author: David Williamson Shaffer August 2005, 22 pp. Abstract: Multiculturalism is an essential tool for democratic citizenship in a world made ever more closely interconnected by information technologies. In this paper, I propose a model for progressive multicultural education in the computer age. I begin by describing the Pragmatic Progressive model of learning implicit in …

Authors: David Williamson Shaffer, Kurt R. Squire, Richard Halverson, and James Paul Gee June 2005, 13 pp. Abstract: Will video games change the way we learn? We argue here for a particular view of games — and of learning — as activities that are most powerful when they are personally meaningful, experiential, social, and epistemological …

Author: David Williamson Shaffer June 2005, 50 pp. Abstract: This paper examines how middle school students developed understanding of transformational geometry through design activities in Escher’s World, a computationally rich design experiment explicitly modeled on an architectural design studio. Escher’s World was based on the theory of pedagogical praxis (Shaffer, 2004a), which suggests that preserving …

Authors: Jennifer L. White, Craig A. Albers, James C. DiPerna, Stephen N. Elliott, Thomas R. Kratochwill, and Andrew T. Roach March 2005, 29 pp. Abstract: Cost analysis has become an important educational decision-making tool in recent years, as educators are being asked to do more with less funding and to provide tangible evidence of the …

Authors: Andrew T. Roach, Stephen N. Elliott September 2004, 22 pp. Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the methods and results of alignment analyses and standard-setting procedures used in investigations conducted during the development of alternate assessments in two states: Wisconsin and Idaho. To meet the assessment and accountability mandates contained in the Individuals …