Co-designing teacher support technology for problem-based learning in middle school science

Abstract

This paper provides an experience report on a co-design approach with teachers to co-create learning analytics-based technology to support problem-based learning in middle school science classrooms. We have mapped out a workflow for such applications and developed design narratives to investigate the implementation, modifications and temporal roles of the participants in the design process. Our results provide precedent knowledge on co-designing with experienced and novice teachers and co-constructing actionable insight that can help teachers engage more effectively with their students' learning and problem-solving processes during classroom PBL implementations.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Success of educational technology depends in large part on the technology's alignment with teachers' goals for their students, teaching strategies and classroom context.
• Teacher and researcher co-design of educational technology and supporting curricula has proven to be an effective way for integrating teacher insight and supporting their implementation needs.
• Co-designing learning analytics and support technologies with teachers is difficult due to differences in design and development goals, workplace norms, and AI-literacy and learning analytics background of teachers.

What this paper adds

• We provide a co-design workflow for middle school teachers that centres on co-designing and developing actionable insights to support problem-based learning (PBL) by systematic development of responsive teaching practices using AI-generated learning analytics.
• We adapt established human-computer interaction (HCI) methods to tackle the complex task of classroom PBL implementation, working with experienced and novice teachers to create a learning analytics dashboard for a PBL curriculum.
• We demonstrate researcher and teacher roles and needs in ensuring co-design collaboration and the co-construction of actionable insight to support middle school PBL.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Learning analytics researchers will be able to use the workflow as a tool to support their PBL co-design processes.
• Learning analytics researchers will be able to apply adapted HCI methods for effective co-design processes.
• Co-design teams will be able to pre-emptively prepare for the difficulties and needs of teachers when integrating middle school teacher feedback during the co-design process in support of PBL technologies.