Implementing Digital Tools to Support Student Questioning Abilities: A Collaborative Action Research Report

This collaborative action research project was conducted in a second-grade classroom to determine the impact that digital web-based tools would have in helping a school media coordinator scaffold her students’ understanding of productive versus non-productive questions. The digital tools Kahoot, Quizizz, and Socrative were used by the students to help them recognize the difference between productive and non-productive questions, as well as supporting them in the ability to generate their own productive questions. While results related to student learning outcomes showed minimal increases, the researchers found that the iterative and reflective nature of the action research cycle enabled the media coordinator and researcher to refine their original choices of digital technology based on formative assessment in the action research cycle to select the digital tools that best fit the context of this specific learning environment. These findings offer further support for the use of collaborative action research as a means to assist educators in choosing the right digital tools to meet their students’ learning needs

Computational Thinking Integration into Middle Grades Science Classrooms: Strategies for Meeting the Challenges

This paper reports findings from the efforts of a university-based research team as they worked with middle school educators within formal school structures to infuse computer science principles and computational thinking practices. Despite the need to integrate these skills within regular classroom practices to allow all students the opportunity to learn these essential 21st Century skills, prior practice has been to offer these learning experiences outside of mainstream curricula where only a subset of students have access. We have sought to leverage elements of the research-practice partnership framework to achieve our project objectives of integrating computer science and computational thinking within middle science classrooms. Utilizing a qualitative approach to inquiry, we present narratives from three case schools, report on themes across work sites, and share recommendations to guide other practitioners and researchers who are looking to engage in technology-related initiatives to impact the lives of middle grades students