Journal Articles by Denise Bressler
Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2019
According to the National Research Council, the ability to collaboratively solve problems is of t... more According to the National Research Council, the ability to collaboratively solve problems is of the utmost importance in scientific careers, yet students are not exposed to learning experiences that promote such expertise. Recent studies have found that interdependent roles used within collaborative mobile games are an effective way to scaffold collaborative problem solving. School Scene Investigators: The Case of the Mystery Powder, a collaborative mobile game, incorporated interdependent roles in order to foster collaborative problem solving and promote scientific practice. Using epistemic network analysis (ENA), this study examined the conversational discourse of game teams to determine what connections exist between communication responses, language style, and scientific practice. Data included audio transcripts of three teams that played through the game. Transcripts were qualitatively coded for five types of scientific practice aligned to the National Research Council framework for K-12 science education, three types of communication responses (accept/discuss/reject), and an emergent language style (communal). ENA revealed that students developed scientific practices during gameplay. ENA also identified engaged communication responses and communal language style as two types of collaborative discourse used within School Scene Investigators: The Case of the Mystery Powder that fostered key linkages to effective data analysis and interpretation.
Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 2019
Previous research using collaborative mobile augmented reality games in science education reveale... more Previous research using collaborative mobile augmented reality games in science education revealed that such games can be used to promote learner engagement and have found that engagement in such mobile games is related to flow. This study investigated whether player's flow experience differed by achievement track, gender, or gender composition of working groups. In an urban school district, 202 students from two eighth‐grade science classes participated in a collaborative mobile science game. Data included a self‐report survey collected after the game that measured player's flow experience. Using a regression model, the relationship of flow experience with achievement track and gender was explored while controlling for group composition and teacher effects. The study found that gender was related to flow experience; specifically, girls reported higher flow experience scores (d = 0.30). Flow experience did not have a statistically significant relationship with achievement track showing that the activity engaged all observed students similarly.
Mobile serious educational games (SEGs) show promise for promoting scientific practices and high ... more Mobile serious educational games (SEGs) show promise for promoting scientific practices and high engagement. Researchers have quantified this engagement according to flow theory. This study investigated whether a mobile SEG promotes flow experience and scientific practices with eighth-grade urban students. Students playing the game ( n = 59) were compared with students in a business-as-usual control activity ( n = 120). In both scenarios, students worked in small teams. Data measures included an open-ended instrument designed to measure scientific practices, a self-report flow survey, and classroom observations. The game players had significantly higher levels of flow and scientific practices compared to the control group. Observations revealed that game teams received less whole-class instruction and review compared to the control teams. Game teachers had primarily a guide-on-the-side role when facilitating the game, while control teachers predominantly used didactic instruction when facilitating the control activity. Implications for these findings are discussed.
Critical thinking, an important concept dating back to Dewey, is still poorly taught and poorly a... more Critical thinking, an important concept dating back to Dewey, is still poorly taught and poorly assessed, particularly in science education. The ability to think critically is important in scientific careers, yet such expertise is not promoted in schools. Recently, the National Research Council outlined eight scientific practices as guidelines for science education reform. These practices include interpreting data, constructing explanations, and arguing with evidence—all aspects of critical thinking. This study used a multiple case study approach to assess critical thinking in the form of science writing and collaborative discourse; student teams playing a collaborative mobile science game and teams participating in a business-as-usual activity were compared. Science writing from game teams exhibited stronger data interpretation, more detailed hypotheses, and more thorough definitions of the problem. Gamers’ discourse revealed higher levels of scientific practices, engaged responses, and communal language. Discourse among control teams revealed lower levels of scientific practice along with higher levels of rejecting responses and commands. Overall, game teams demonstrated that scientific knowledge can be advanced through effective collaborative discourse while control teams demonstrated that knowledge construction is hindered when discourse patterns are ineffective.
Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 2013
Current studies have reported that secondary students are highly engaged while playing mobile aug... more Current studies have reported that secondary students are highly engaged while playing mobile augmented reality (AR) learning games. Some researchers have posited that players’ engagement may indicate a flow experience, but no research results have confirmed this hypothesis with vision-based AR learning games. This study investigated factors related to students’ engagement – as characterized by flow theory – during a collaborative AR, forensic science mystery game using mobile devices. School Scene Investigators: The Case of the Stolen Score Sheets is a vision-based AR game played inside the school environment with Quick Response codes. A mixed methods approach was employed with 68 urban middle school students. Data sources included pre- and post-surveys, field observations and group interviews. Results showed that neither gender nor interest in science was an important predictor of variability in flow experience. Gaming attitude uniquely predicted 23% of the variance in flow experience. Student flow experience features included a flash of intensity, a sense of discovery and the desire for higher performance. The findings demonstrated a potential for mobile AR science games to increase science interest and help students learn collaboration skills. Implications for future research concerning mobile AR science games are discussed.
Book Chapters by Denise Bressler
Handbook of Research on Innovative Digital Practices to Engage Learners, 2019
Society's serious problems require creative thinkers. Developing an effective workforce relies on... more Society's serious problems require creative thinkers. Developing an effective workforce relies on cultivating our children's creativity. Unfortunately, we are suffering a creativity crisis, particularly with young children. Since 1990, early elementary students have suffered the largest decrease in creative thinking capacity. Rather than learning through play, young children are taught by rote and tested extensively. Play is indispensable for early learners; without play, students are missing an essential element of early learning that stimulates creative thinking. To promote play, elementary teachers should be trained in maker-centered teaching, a playful approach to learning that embodies the essential elements of STEM education. To truly integrate maker-centered learning, there is a critical need for effective maker-centered professional development. Maker-centered teaching provides playful learning where young children can experience STEM and learn to think more creatively. With maker-centered teaching, we can make the next generation of innovators.
Handbook of Research on Mobile Technology, Constructivism, and Meaningful Learning, 2018
Well-designed mobile games that require player agency and meaning making are excellent examples o... more Well-designed mobile games that require player agency and meaning making are excellent examples of constructivist learning. Mobile games can generate a myriad of different learning experiences such as discovery learning and contextually based learning. One of the most powerful affordances of games is promoting social learning, or social constructivism; collaborative games provide plenty of opportunities for peer scaffolding and collaborative discourse. This chapter details three mobile augmented reality games designed to afford constructivist learning through collaborative interactions: one inside a school, one on and around school grounds, while the last one is located at a working farm. We hope to demonstrate that collaborative mobile games represent a flexible approach that can promote meaningful learning across subjects, ages, and even environments. Game-based learning (GBL) can, does, and should continue to occur in class; however, GBL can also be effectively implemented outside and even far away from the classroom, off-site.
Optimizing STEM Education With Advanced ICTs and Simulations, 2017
To make STEM learning meaningful, students need to feel the relevance and authenticity of the lea... more To make STEM learning meaningful, students need to feel the relevance and authenticity of the learning activity. Games—particularly mobile games—offer a unique opportunity for students to be immersed in collaborative STEM inquiry. INPLACE mobile games combine the best practices of what the games and learning field knows about using the affordances of mobile devices to engage students, to support collaboration, and to promote authentic practice in a discipline. INPLACE is an acronym that stands for Interdependent, Networked, Participatory Learning, Augmented, Collaborative Experience. School Scene Investigators is a game series designed according to the INPLACE framework; students playing it demonstrated higher engagement and scientific inquiry than students in a control activity. Ultimately, INPLACE provides a design framework that teachers and researchers can use for building mobile games that heightens engagement and increases inquiry-based learning.
In museums, learners have always been mobile, moving from exhibit to exhibit. Now, museum learner... more In museums, learners have always been mobile, moving from exhibit to exhibit. Now, museum learners are still mobile, they just may not be in the museum anymore. Using newer technologies like geo-referenced data and augmented reality, museums are providing their content, while the mobile learner provides the context. This chapter will discuss the evolution of mobile-based museum initiatives, showing a progression from spectator culture to participatory culture. As museums find better ways to engage mobile learners, research is showing improved learning through active socio-cultural engagement. With each new mobile initiative, museums are increasingly becoming the ideal gateway for mobile learning.
Dissertation by Denise Bressler
Mobile science learning games show promise for promoting scientific practices and high engagement... more Mobile science learning games show promise for promoting scientific practices and high engagement. Researchers have quantified this engagement according to flow theory. Using an embedded mixed methods design, this study investigated whether an INPLACE mobile game promotes flow experience, scientific practices, and effective team collaboration. Students playing the game (n=59) were compared with students in a business-as-usual control activity (n=120). Using an open-ended instrument designed to measure scientific practices and a self-report flow survey, this study empirically assessed flow and learner’s scientific practices. The game players had significantly higher levels of flow and scientific practices. Using a multiple case study approach, collaboration among game teams (n=3 teams) was qualitatively compared with control teams (n=3 teams). Game teams revealed not only higher levels of scientific practices but also higher levels of engaged responses and communal language. Control teams revealed lower levels of scientific practice along with higher levels of rejecting responses and commands. Overall, the game not only offered a way to engage students but also enabled better learning.
Games by Denise Bressler
Conference Presentations by Denise Bressler
International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography, 2019
School Scene Investigators: The Case of The Mystery Powder was designed to foster collaborative l... more School Scene Investigators: The Case of The Mystery Powder was designed to foster collaborative learning and scientific practice. This study examined three team conversations to resolve whether off-topic utterances deter or support learning. Transcripts were coded for scientific practice and social attributes. Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) revealed that off-topic utterances were strongly connected to communal language at the game’s beginning; by the end, the relationship had weakened—communal language became strongly connected to discussing data.
NARST Conference, 2019
Studies have shown that student interest in STEM plays an important role in persistence in the ST... more Studies have shown that student interest in STEM plays an important role in persistence in the STEM pipeline (Maltese & Tai, 2011). Interest can be triggered through engaging experiences that are novel and challenging; well-designed learning games can offer such an experience. School Scene Investigators: The Case of the Stolen Score Sheets, a middle school forensic science game played using mobile devices, has been shown to promote engagement for all achievement tracks and is particularly engaging for girls. By fitting a Bayesian path model, this study examined whether there was a relationship between student engagement and triggered situational interest in forensic science. Data included a post-survey collected immediately after the game. The survey included basic demographics, a flow experience measure, and a measure of situational interest. Results revealed that flow state (i.e. engagement) had a relationship with triggered situational interest. When controlling for student level factors, predicted average flow was a positive predictor of the probability that students will report having triggered science interest. Models demonstrated that players in a high flow states were nearly twice as likely to report a triggered interest as those in a low flow state. Implications for the findings are discussed.
According to the National Research Council (2012), the ability to collaboratively solve problems ... more According to the National Research Council (2012), the ability to collaboratively solve problems is of the utmost importance in scientific careers, yet students are not exposed to learning experiences that promote such expertise. Recent studies have found that interdependent roles used within mobile augmented reality (AR) games are an effective way to scaffold collaborative problem solving. School Scene Investigators: The Case of the Mystery Powder, a mobile AR game, incorporated interdependent roles in order to foster collaborative problem solving and promote scientific practice. Using epistemic network analysis (ENA), this study examined the conversational discourse of game teams to determine what connections exist between communication responses, language style, and scientific practice. Data included audio transcripts of three teams that played through the game. Transcripts were qualitatively coded for five types of scientific practice aligned to the National Research Council (2012) framework for K-12 science education, three types of communication responses (accept/discuss/reject), and two types of language style (communal/command). ENA revealed that students developed scientific practices during gameplay. ENA also identified engaged communication responses and communal language style as two types of collaborative discourse used within School Scene Investigators that fostered key linkages to effective data analysis and interpretation.
According to a report commissioned by the National Research Council, the ability to collaborative... more According to a report commissioned by the National Research Council, the ability to collaboratively solve problems is of the utmost importance in scientific careers. Given this reality, it is critically important to provide science education that promotes collaborative learning. Research supports the effectiveness of mobile games to scaffold collaborative problem-solving. INPLACE mobile games, a new category of Serious Educational Games, combine the best practices of what the games and learning field knows about how to engage students and how to support collaboration. INPLACE is an acronym that stands for: Interdependent, Networked, Participatory Learning, Augmented, Collaborative Experience. INPLACE mobile games are collaborative by design, proven to be engaging by affording a substantive flow-like experience, and most recently, better at promoting scientific practices than business as usual. This poster synthesizes relevant literature and proposes a theoretical model for how and why collaborative learning takes place in INPLACE mobile games.
According to the National Research Council, the ability to collaboratively solve problems is of t... more According to the National Research Council, the ability to collaboratively solve problems is of the utmost importance in scientific careers, yet students are not exposed to learning experiences that promote such expertise. Researchers have found that interdependent roles used within mobile AR games are an effective way to scaffold collaborative problem solving. Using a multiple case study approach, this study assessed communication responses, scientific practices, and language style used both by student teams playing a mobile AR science game and teams participating in a control activity. Conversations amongst game teams revealed not only higher levels of scientific practices but also higher levels of engaged responses and communal language. Conversations amongst control teams revealed lower levels of scientific practice but also higher levels of rejecting responses and commands. Implications for this finding are discussed.
INPLACE is an acronym that stands for: Interdependent, Networked, Participatory Learning, Augment... more INPLACE is an acronym that stands for: Interdependent, Networked, Participatory Learning, Augmented, Collaborative Experience. Previous research using INPLACE mobile games in science education revealed that such games can be used to promote deeper science understanding and high learner engagement. Previous studies have found that engagement in INPLACE mobile games is related to flow. This study investigated whether player’s flow experience differed by learning setting, achievement track, or gender composition of the working group. In an urban school district, 68 middle school students volunteered for an INPLACE enrichment activity, while 203 students from two eighth grade science classes participated in a scale-up implementation as part of the classroom-based curriculum. Data included a flow experience measure collected after the game using a valid and reliable survey. An independent sample t-test found no significant difference (p=.94) between the flow scores from the classroom-based activity versus the enrichment activity. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) model showed no significant differences across achievement levels (p=.17). Finally, a two-way ANOVA that compared flow scores of males and females from single gender and mixed gender groups revealed no significant main effects or interaction effect. Findings from this study provide support that INPLACE mobile games played in traditional science classrooms can engage all learners in science education.
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Journal Articles by Denise Bressler
Book Chapters by Denise Bressler
Dissertation by Denise Bressler
Games by Denise Bressler
Conference Presentations by Denise Bressler
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