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Computational thinking is widely recognized as important, not only to those interested in computer science and mathematics but also to every student in the twenty-first century. However, the concept of computational thinking is arguably complex; the term itself can easily lead to direct connection with "computing" or "computer" in a restricted sense. In this editorial, we build on existing research about computational thinking to discuss it as a multi-faceted theoretical nature. We further present computational thinking, as a model of thinking, that is important not only in computer science and mathematics, but also in other disciplines of STEM and integrated STEM education broadly.

This article develops some ideas concerning the “big picture” of how using computers might fundamentally change learning, with an emphasis on mathematics (and, more generally, STEM education). I develop the big-picture model of computation as a new literacy in some detail and with concrete examples of sixth grade students learning the mathematics of motion. The principles that define computational literacy also serve as an analytical framework to examine competitive big pictures, and I use them to consider the plausibility, power, and limitations of other important contemporary trends in computationally centered education, notably computational thinking and coding as a social movement. While both of these trends have much to recommend them, my analysis uncovers some implausible assumptions and counterproductive elements of those trends. I close my essay with some more practical and action-oriented advice to mathematics educators on how best to orient to the long-term trajectory (big picture) of improving mathematics education with computation.

This article examines a remarkable learning event where a high school class developed, on its own, a stable, normative view of thermal equilibration. The event is also notable because the intuitive ideas that students bootstrapped into their model of equilibration have been thoroughly documented in prior research. Therefore, the process of changing prior conceptions is well delineated. The main point of the article is to review what happened in this microcosm of learning from multiple perspectives to examine how well each perspective can account for the learning that took place. We use three competing views of conceptual change: Knowledge in Pieces, the Theory Theory, and the Ontological View. We argue that Knowledge in Pieces provides a more detailed and more adequate account of the learning that took place, whereas that learning contradicts core commitments of the Theory Theory and of the Ontological View.

This article develops some ideas concerning the "big picture" of how using computers might fundamentally change learning, with an emphasis on mathematics (and, more generally, STEM education). I develop the big-picture model of "computation as a new literacy" in some detail and with concrete examples of sixth grade students learning the mathematics of motion. The principles that define computational literacy also serve as an analytical framework to examine competitive big pictures, and I use them to consider the plausibility, power, and limitations of other important contemporary trends in computationally centered education, notably "computational thinking" and "coding" as a social movement. While both of these trends have much to recommend them, my analysis uncovers some implausible assumptions and counterproductive elements of those trends. I close my essay with some more practical and action-oriented advice to mathematics educators on how best to orient to the long-term trajectory (big picture) of improving mathematics education with computation.

This work uses microgenetic study of classroom learning to illuminate (1) the role of pre-instructional student knowledge in the construction of normative scientific knowledge, and (2) the learning mechanisms that drive change. Three enactments of an instructional sequence designed to lead to a scientific understanding of thermal equilibration are used as data sources. Only data from a scaffolded student inquiry preceding introduction of a normative model were used. Hence, the study involves nearly autonomous student learning. In two classes, students developed stable and socially shared explanations ("causal schemes") for understanding thermal equilibration. One case resulted in a near-normative understanding, while the other resulted in a non-normative "alternative conception." The near-normative case seems to be a particularly clear example wherein the constructed causal scheme is a composition of previously documented naïve conceptions. Detailed prior description of these naive elements allows a much better than usual view of the corresponding details of change during construction of the new scheme. A list of candidate mechanisms that can account for observed change is presented. The non-normative construction seems also to be a composition, albeit of a different structural form, using a different (although similar) set of naïve elements. This article provides one of very few high-resolution process analyses showing the productive use of naïve knowledge in learning.

This paper introduces and exemplifies a qualitative method for studying learning, microgenetic learning analysis (MLA), which is aimed jointly at developing theory and at establishing useful empirical results. Among modern methodologies, the focus on theory is somewhat distinctive. We use two strategies to describe MLA. First, we develop a framework for comparing the focus and means of different methods, particularly qualitative methods, aimed at studying learning. Using the framework, we compare and contrast MLA with two better-known methods, microgenetic analysis and grounded theory. Second, we aim to schematize elements of MLA-from large-scale patterns of work to detailed analytical strategies-and to exemplify some of them in a case study using data collected some years prior to this elaboration of MLA.

This article aims to account for students' assessments of the plausibility and applicability of analogical explanations, and individual differences in these assessments, by analyzing properties of students' underlying knowledge systems. We developed a model of explanation and change in explanation focusing on knowledge elements that provide a sense of satisfaction to those judging the explanation. We call these elements "explanatory primitives." In this model, explanations are accepted or rejected on the basis of (a) the individual's convictions concerning particular explanatory primitives and (b) the fit of these primitives to current circumstances. Data are drawn from clinical interviews with three high school students who worked through a bridging analogies tutoring sequence on the existence of the normal force in mechanics. Methodologically, our work involves fine-grain analysis of process data and explicit principles of empirical accountability; we believe it marks a methodological advance over most previously reported empirical studies of analogical reasoning. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Student engagement in classroom activities is usually described as a function of factors such as human needs, affect, intention, motivation, interests, identity, and others. We take a different approach and develop a framework that models classroom engagement as a function of students' . conceptual competence in the . specific content (e.g., the mathematics of motion) of an activity. The framework uses a spatial metaphor-i.e., the classroom . activity as a territory through which students move-as a way to both capture common engagement-related dynamics and as a communicative device. In this formulation, then, students' engaged participation can be understood in terms of the nature of the " regions" and overall " topography" of the activity territory, and how much student . movement such a territory affords. We offer the framework not in competition with other instructional design approaches, but rather as an additional tool to aid in the analysis and conduct of engaging classroom activities. © 2011 Elsevier Inc..

This paper sketches a careful analysis of an exceptional classroom event where students develop, without explicit instruction, a model equivalent to Newton's thermal law as a composition of intuitive knowledge elements. Lessons about how social (cultural, discursive, situated, etc.) and cognitive perspectives may interact are put forward. © American Institute of Physics.

This article provides an empirical analysis of a single classroom episode in which students reveal difficulties with the concept of proper time in special relativity but slowly make progress in improving their understanding. The theoretical framework used is “coordination class theory,” which is an evolving model of concepts and conceptual change. The paper will focus on showing to what extent and in what sense most of the conditions and events in the data corpus seem understandable from the point of view of coordination class theory. In addition, however, some extensions of the theory are implicated, although we argue that they are “natural” extensions, improvements that extend, but do not threaten, the core theory. In particular, we observe students articulately aligning different ways of determining proper time, and we conjecture, more generally, that such a process is strongly consistent with coordination class theory and likely to be productive in other cases of conceptual change. The empirical analysis is explicitly connected to the general issue of theories and theory development in studies of conceptual change.

Clinical interviewing is viewed here as a social interactional pattern in order to examine the nature and limits of the technique as a means of scientific data acquisition. I defend the technique against criticisms that it is ecologically suspect and prone to systematic biases, mainly due to influence of the interviewer on the interviewee or to unnatural and biasing interactional patterns. The Central Hypothesis of this work is that at least some forms of clinical interviewing are derivative of naturally occurring patterns of activity and interaction. As such, they do not warrant unnecessary a priori suspicion. More importantly, this view leads to avenues of empirical examination that allow determination and checking of the character of the clinical interaction, which bears directly on how and when data extracted in clinical contexts are scientifically valid. Data from an extensive corpus involving a single subject are used to illustrate and substantiate claims. Copyright © 2007, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

This article reviews Giyoo Hatano's ground-breaking theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions to conceptual change research. In particular, his discovery of 'vitalism' as part of children's legitimate and distinctive biology at early ages stands as a landmark. In addition, his work reinterpreted childhood 'personification,' changing it from an indicator of deficient intellect, to a creative and often insightful strategy for coming to understand biology. Copyright © 2007 S. Karger AG.

This work uses microgenetic study of classroom learning to illuminate (1) the role of pre-instructional student knowledge in the construction of normative scientific knowledge, and (2) the learning mechanisms that drive change. Three enactments of an instructional sequence designed to lead to a scientific understanding of thermal equilibration are used as data sources. Only data from a scaffolded student inquiry preceding introduction of a normative model were used. Hence, the study involves nearly autonomous student learning. In two classes, students developed stable and socially shared explanations ("causal schemes") for understanding thermal equilibration. One case resulted in a near-normative understanding, while the other resulted in a non-normative "alternative conception." The near-normative case seems to be a particularly clear example wherein the constructed causal scheme is a composition of previously documented naïve conceptions. Detailed prior description of these naive elements allows a much better than usual view of the corresponding details of change during construction of the new scheme. A list of candidate mechanisms that can account for observed change is presented. The non-normative construction seems also to be a composition, albeit of a different structural form, using a different (although similar) set of naïve elements. This article provides one of very few high-resolution process analyses showing the productive use of naïve knowledge in learning.

Student engagement in classroom activities is usually described as a function of factors such as human needs, affect, intention, motivation, interests, identity, and others. We take a different approach and develop a framework that models classroom engagement as a function of students' "conceptual competence" in the "specific content" (e.g., the mathematics of motion) of an activity. The framework uses a spatial metaphor--i.e., the classroom "activity as a territory" through which students move--as a way to both capture common engagement-related dynamics and as a communicative device. In this formulation, then, students' engaged participation can be understood in terms of the nature of the "regions" and overall "topography" of the activity territory, and how much student "movement" such a territory affords. We offer the framework not in competition with other instructional design approaches, but rather as an additional tool to aid in the analysis and conduct of engaging classroom activities. (Contains 14 figures.)

This article aims to account for students' assessments of the plausibility and applicability of analogical explanations, and individual differences in these assessments, by analyzing properties of students' underlying knowledge systems. We developed a model of explanation and change in explanation focusing on knowledge elements that provide a sense of satisfaction to those judging the explanation. We call these elements "explanatory primitives." In this model, explanations are accepted or rejected on the basis of (a) the individual's convictions concerning particular explanatory primitives and (b) the fit of these primitives to current circumstances. Data are drawn from clinical interviews with three high school students who worked through a bridging analogies tutoring sequence on the existence of the normal force in mechanics. Methodologically, our work involves fine-grain analysis of process data and explicit principles of empirical accountability; we believe it marks a methodological advance over most previously reported empirical studies of analogical reasoning. (Contains 1 figure and 9 footnotes.)

There are many meanings of "scientific reasoning" or "scientific inquiry" in use, and many corresponding orientations toward its enhancement and tracking. Deciding what these terms mean once and for all is an elusive and likely chimerical goal. However, setting down some core models might help in being clear on where different researchers stand and how their work relates. The author's intention in this article is to posit two core models that are neither contradictory nor exhaustive. Kuhn and Pease's "inquiry skills" focus on one type of inquiry, investigating how students progress in understanding "Related Variation." In this article, the author explains this category in stages, starting from a familiar, classical example. (Contains 3 footnotes.)

This article provides an empirical analysis of a single classroom episode in which students reveal difficulties with the concept of proper time in special relativity but slowly make progress in improving their understanding. The theoretical framework used is "coordination class theory," which is an evolving model of concepts and conceptual change. The paper will focus on showing to what extent and in what sense most of the conditions and events in the data corpus seem understandable from the point of view of coordination class theory. In addition, however, some extensions of the theory are implicated, although we argue that they are "natural" extensions, improvements that extend, but do not threaten, the core theory. In particular, we observe students articulately aligning different ways of determining proper time, and we conjecture, more generally, that such a process is strongly consistent with coordination class theory and likely to be productive in other cases of conceptual change. The empirical analysis is explicitly connected to the general issue of theories and theory development in studies of conceptual change. (Contains 3 figures and 46 notes.)

Clinical interviewing is viewed here as a social interactional pattern in order to examine the nature and limits of the technique as a means of scientific data acquisition. I defend the technique against criticisms that it is ecologically suspect and prone to systematic biases, mainly due to influence of the interviewer on the interviewee or to unnatural and biasing interactional patterns. The Central Hypothesis of this work is that at least some forms of clinical interviewing are derivative of naturally occurring patterns of activity and interaction. As such, they do not warrant unnecessary a priori suspicion. More importantly, this view leads to avenues of empirical examination that allow determination and checking of the character of the clinical interaction, which bears directly on how and when data extracted in clinical contexts are scientifically valid. Data from an extensive corpus involving a single subject are used to illustrate and substantiate claims. (Contains 6 footnotes and 2 figures.)

This article reviews Giyoo Hatano's ground-breaking theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions to conceptual change research. In particular, his discovery of "vitalism" as part of children's legitimate and distinctive biology at early ages stands as a landmark. In addition, his work reinterpreted childhood "personification," changing it from an indicator of deficient intellect, to a creative and often insightful strategy for coming to understand biology.