Investigating Children’s “Strategic Competence in Inquiry” in Videogames

Alice Anderson · Katie McMillan Culp · James Diamond · Ashley Lewis · Wendy Martin

Thu., June 11, 11:00–12:30, Old Madison (3rd floor, East/Southeast)

The Center for Children and Technology and the Center for Science Education of the Education Development Center are developing a suite of Nintendo DS mini–games for middle school life science classes to help students overcome common science misconceptions and develop scientific reasoning skills through an inquiry–based curriculum.

As part of the formative phase of this five–year, Department of Education–funded project, we are conducting exploratory research into aspects of children’s abilities to engage in problem solving and scientific reasoning as they play three videogames: Auditorium, World of Goo, and Portal. Using a think aloud protocol and recording game play sessions on video cameras, we will work with approximately 20 4th–7th grade girls and boys in New York City over a 4–6 week period as they verbalize their thinking about in–game problems and solutions. These games are “small” and manageable in terms of children’s time and efforts. Further, the slow pace of the games facilitates frequent pausing, enabling participants to think aloud as they play and describe their actions. Finally, the problems children will encounter in these games are well defined and based in physics principles.

Our goal is to achieve greater insight into how children draw on their capacity for scientific reasoning to solve problems they encounter in videogames. We will describe how children’s play in these games intersects with their use of specific problem solving strategies and how their use of those strategies varies developmentally. This effort is part of an ongoing focus in our work to understand how developmental differences shape children’s engagement with games.

The literature on children’s scientific reasoning and problem solving skills informs our investigation. Specifically, D. Kuhn’s (2008) work in the development of “strategic competence in inquiry” and Klahr’s (2000) scientific discovery as dual search (SDSS) model guide our analysis of children’s problem framing and solving in videogames. Kuhn, Klahr, and others have identified specific behaviors associated with scientific reasoning and problem solving, including problem framing (articulating the nature of the problem to be solved); interpretation of game feedback; reaching conclusions based on evidence; and generating predictions based on evidence from game play. Using these frameworks, we will analyze the think alouds for evidence of these behaviors and strategies.

The following research questions will guide the investigation:

• What features of the game structures and/or narratives most frequently stimulate children to draw on scientific reasoning strategies?
• Are there age–related differences in the ways in which children employ scientific reasoning skills (as characterized by Kuhn) as they play videogames?

With this investigation, we hope to contribute to the current discussion about educational games as tools to develop children’s problem solving abilities by offering evidence of the challenges and successes that some children may experience through videogame play.

During our presentation, we will discuss our analysis of the think aloud sessions and engage members of the audience in a discussion of the developmental issues associated with educational game design for the development of children’s reasoning skills.

References

Klahr, D. (2000). Exploring science: The cognition and development of discovery processes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Kuhn, D. & and Pease, M. (2008). What needs to develop in the development of inquiry skills? Cognition and Instruction, 26(4), 512–559.