Page 31 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education

Informed by the findings from the previous study, chapter 4 describes our 1 second study that portrays computer science teachers’ initial pedagogical content
knowledge (PCK) on modeling and simulation — Magnusson’s component M3
— thus answering our fourth research question: How can the teachers’ PCK of
teaching Computational Science be portrayed in terms of the four components of PCK? This chapter is based on the paper Investigating Informatics Teachers’ Initial Pedagogical Content Knowledge on Modeling and Simulation (Grgurina et al., 2017).
In chapter 5 we describe our third study focusing on the development of an assessment instrument as a part of a lesson unit on Computational Science, to monitor the levels of understanding in the learning outcomes of students engaging in modeling projects. Here we focus on Magnusson’s component M4 and on answering our third research question: What are characteristics of a valid and reliable assessment instrument for Computational Science? The development of this assessment instrument and the teaching materials for the lesson unit is based on the findings of the two previous studies which provided us with an operational description of the intended learning outcomes of Computational Science — Magnusson’s component M1 — and with CS teachers’ initial PCK on modeling and simulation that specifically contributed to our understanding of suitable instructional strategies — Magnusson’s component M3. This chapter is based on the paper Assessment of Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computing Science Education (Grgurina, Barendsen, Suhre, Zwaneveld, et al., 2018).
Chapter 6, our final study, looks into students’ understanding — Magnusson’s component M2 — while they work on computation science assignments with the teaching materials which we developed using the findings of the first two studies which informed us about suitable instructional strategies — Magnusson’s component M3. Here we focus on our second research question: How can the students’ understanding of modeling activities be portrayed in terms of their requirements for learning and difficulties they encounter? In particular, we focus on the students’ understanding of the model validation in terms of validation techniques they employ to ensure the development of valid models.
Figure 1 depicts the structure of this research project. The first study (chapter 3) informed the second study (chapter 4). Together, they informed the third and the fourth study — chapter 5 and chapter 6.
Introduction
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