Our Designs and the Social Agendas They Carry

Barab, Sasha A.; Dodge, Tyler; Thomas, Michael K.; Jackson, Craig; Tüzün, Hakan

doi:10.1080/10508400701193713

Cited by 99 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(35 reference statements)

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“…Wagner 1997) and design research in particular (cf. Barab et al 2007;Reeves et al 2005) plays an important, if not determining role in shaping the research activities and-though we might not like to admit it-sometimes even the findings. Researchers and practitioners take on multiple roles during design studies, which is one way to facilitate the flow and uptake of new knowledge.…”

Section: Characterizing Educational Design Researchmentioning

confidence: 98%

Research–practice interactions as reported in recent design studies: still promising, still hazy

Ormel

Roblin

McKenney

et al. 2012

Education Tech Research Dev

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This study portrays recent research-practice connections found in 18 design research reports focusing on the creation of instructional solutions. Solutions in different stages of development varied greatly in duration, ranging from one lesson to a whole year curriculum, spanned all levels of education, many subjects (science, math, language, culture, teacher education, etc.). Close collaboration between researchers and practitioners was prominent in all of the 18 projects studied. Participants in primary and secondary education projects have quite distinct roles regarding the teaching and researching, but they design their instruction solutions often collaboratively. Nearly all projects reported on how designed solutions were anchored in research, either from literature or from in-house project data. All articles indicated that research fed (re-)design, but few specified how. Based on our findings, we call for increased research and reporting on the specific strategies employed by design research participants to facilitate the production of new theoretical understanding through design of instructional solutions.Keywords Design research Á Research practice gap Á Research and development All may be contacted through the University of Twente.

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Section: Characterizing Educational Design Researchmentioning

confidence: 98%

Research–practice interactions as reported in recent design studies: still promising, still hazy

Ormel

Roblin

McKenney

et al. 2012

Education Tech Research Dev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Designing games to realize social commitments is a challenge, with numerous struggles, opposing agendas, and even unintended and controversial consequences (Barab et al, 2004). More specifically, designing narratives to embed the player in moral struggles gives rise to power struggles, controversial issues of intentionality and ethnocentrism, and conflicts around ownership and agency (Barab, Dodge, Thomas, et al, 2007). More problematically, determining outcomes of particular actions involves the assertion of the designer's intended yet hidden biases, values, and beliefs.…”

Section: Designer Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our vision and, indeed, our research and design work, they can foster a state of engagement involving projection into a character role within in a partially fictional problem context, a context in which one must engage particular understandings and ideological commitments to make sense of and, ultimately, transform the context. Through our research and design work, we have come to appreciate not only the challenge of engaging youth with such complex ideological dilemmas but also the efficacy with which experiential scaffolds can achieve such engagement (Barab, Dodge, Thomas, Jackson, & Tuzun, 2007). Moreover, we recognize the efficacy of videogames and specifically of narrative transactivity in promoting these ends.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pedagogical Dramas and Transformational Play: Narratively Rich Games for Learning

Barab

Dodge

Ingram-Goble

et al. 2010

Mind, Culture, and Activity

Self Cite

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Abstract.Although every era is met with the introduction of powerful technologies for entertainment and learning, videogames represent a new contribution binding the two and bearing the potential to create sustained engagement in a curricular drama where the player's knowledgeable actions shape an unfolding fiction within a designed world. While traditionally, stories involve an author, a performer, and an audience, much of the power of videogames as media for advancing narrative springs from their affordance for the player to occupy more than one role-and sometimes all three-simultaneously. In the narratively-rich videogames that we design, players have the opportunity to perform actions, experience consequences, and reflect on the underlying social values that these situations were designed to engage, affording a type of narrative transactivity. Elsewhere we have discussed designing these media as contexts for engaging academic content; here we illuminate the power of videogames to engage children in ideological struggles as they are experienced in game-based adaptations of classic literature. Toward this end, we present our theoretical argument for the power of games as a contemporary story medium, grounding this discussion in the context of two game design projects and their implementations. Implications are discussed in terms of the potential of immersive, interactive mediavideogame technology, in short-for achieving wide-ranging educational ends.

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“…In research in the field of the Learning Sciences and technology-enhanced learning, the use of design-based research has gained a reputation as being the methodology of choice (Barab, 2006;Barab & Squire, 2004;Edelson, 2002;Fishman, Marx, Blumenfeld, Krajcik, & Soloway, 2004;The DesignBased Research Collective, 2003). Design-based research lends itself to the field of educational research as its underlying premise is to develop the design of artefacts, technological tools, and curriculum and to further an existing theory or develop new theories in naturalistic settings that can support and lead to an deepened understanding of learning (Barab, Dodge, Thomas, Jackson, & Tuzun, 2007;Barab & Squire, 2004;Fishman, et al, 2004). SPECIAL ISSUE: 10 th Anniversary…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflection: Research by design: Design-based research and the higher degree research student

Kennedy-Clark

2015

JLD

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One of my first thoughts upon being asked to revisit this article (Kennedy-Clark, 2013) was to reflect upon how much research has been done on design-based research as a methodology. So, in this response, I will draw upon some of the main ideas that are coming from recent studies and consider this in the context of Higher Degree Research (HDR). When I was first introduced to design-based research, it was the methodological approach being used in a grant-funded research project at the Centre for Computer Supported Learning and Cognition (CoCo Lab) at the University of Sydney, Australia, where we were building an educational virtual world that was based on Harvard's River City. At the time, most of the literature on design-based research was grounded firmly in the learning sciences and came from leading researchers in the field, such as Barab and Squire's (2004) seminal text and from research groups such as the Design-Based Research Collective (2003). As my PhD was in this field, the approach seemed to provide more opportunities to improve my understanding of the study than other, perhaps more traditional, approaches. It also seemed relevant as design research is a methodological response to address issues in education rather than being drawn across from other research domains.The methodology seemed to provide space for the messy and sometimes "wicked" problems that are faced by educators in that it harnesses the relative strengths of multidisciplinary teams, long-term projects, iterative design, and multiple sources of data. What stood out in this approach from other methodological approaches relevant to education, such as action research, was its emphasis on theory building as part of the output as well as practical solutions. This emphasis on design to solve problems is not a new notion in educational research. For example, Schön (1983) noted that educators are designers who design artefacts to solve problems thus implying that design is at the core of education. The chapter by Plomp (2007), offered, at the time, the best rationale for using the methodology in my own PhD research and is the chapter that I first direct HDR students to who are considering using a design approach. Plomp (2007) explained that "the need for a research approach that addresses complex problems in educational practice has been argued by researchers in various 'corners' of the domain of education from the lack of relevance of much educational research for educational practice" (p. 9). Further, Plomp's (2007) discussion of design-research and provision of a range of models is relevant to HDR contexts in that it provides students with a visual representation of research studies that can translate across to other contexts. For example, Mafumiko's (2006) dissertation offers a practical outline of how design research could be used in a doctoral dissertation circumventing the need for multidisciplinary teams by drawing upon panels of experts as part of the design phases; thus providing a concrete strategy for HDR students who are working as s...

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Our Designs and the Social Agendas They Carry

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

Cited by 99 publications

References 48 publications

Research–practice interactions as reported in recent design studies: still promising, still hazy

Research–practice interactions as reported in recent design studies: still promising, still hazy

Pedagogical Dramas and Transformational Play: Narratively Rich Games for Learning

Reflection: Research by design: Design-based research and the higher degree research student

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