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The multidisciplinary study of complex systems in the physical and social sciences over the past quarter of a century has led to the articulation of important new conceptual perspectives and methodologies that are of value both to researchers in these fields as well as to professionals, policymakers, and citizens who must deal with challenging social and global problems in the 21st century. The main goals of this article are to (a) argue for the importance of learning these ideas at the precollege and college levels; (b) discuss the significant challenges inherent in learning complex systems knowledge from the standpoint of learning sciences theory and research; (c) discuss the "learnability issue" of complex systems conceptual perspectives and review a body of literature that has been exploring how learning sciences pedagogical approaches can lead to student learning of important dimensions of complex systems knowledge; (d) argue that the cognitive and sociocultural factors related to learning complex systems knowledge are relevant and challenging areas for learning sciences research; and (e) consider ways that concepts and methodologies from the study of complex systems raise important issues of theoretical and methodological centrality in the field of the learning sciences itself.

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Journal of the Learning SciencesPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:

The number of students taking high school computer science classes is growing. Increasingly, these students are learning with graphical, block-based programming environments either in place of or prior to traditional text-based programming languages. Despite their growing use in formal settings, relatively little empirical work has been done to understand the impacts of using block-based programming environments in high school classrooms. In this article, we present the results of a 5-week, quasi-experimental study comparing isomorphic block-based and text-based programming environments in an introductory high school programming class. The findings from this study show students in both conditions improved their scores between pre- and postassessments; however, students in the blocks condition showed greater learning gains and a higher level of interest in future computing courses. Students in the text condition viewed their programming experience as more similar to what professional programmers do and as more effective at improving their programming ability. No difference was found between students in the two conditions with respect to confidence or enjoyment. The implications of these findings with respect to pedagogy and design are discussed, along with directions for future work.