Girls teach themselves, and boys too: Peer learning in a computer-based design and construction activity

Abstract In this study, we investigated the use of female students as peer experts in a workshop introducing an interactive, computer-based learning environment called LEGO/Logo. In LEGO/Logo, children design, construct and program computer-controllable machines using specialized parts such as motors, sound elements, and sensors. The eighty-five students who participated in the study attended 6th grade (age 12) at a middle-class elementary school in the United States. The LEGO/Logo workshops were approximately 15 hours each, and the students worked primarily in pairs or groups of three. The findings indicate that the students were successful in building a wide range of LEGO/Logo machines, from simple to complex models, and that the peer teachers were utilized as experts by the other students and benefited from this experience. Certain gender-related differences were observed in the students' interactions and in working with the LEGO/Logo system.

[1]  J. Roschelle.  Learning by Collaborating: Convergent Conceptual Change , 1992 .

[2]  Laurie D. Edwards.  A Comparison of Children's Learning in Two Interactive Computer Environments , 1992 .

[3]  Allen Newell,et al.  Human Problem Solving. , 1973 .

[4]  Elizabeth Fennema,et al.  Sex-Related Differences in Mathematics Achievement and Related Factors: A Further Study. , 1978 .

[5]  Douglas H. Clements,et al.  Research on Logo: Effects and Efficacy. , 1993 .

[6]  S. Papert,et al.  Constructionism: Research Reports and Essays, 1985-1990 , 1991 .

[7]  B. Rogoff.  Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive Development in Social Context , 1990 .

[8]  N. Minick,et al.  Contexts for Learning: Sociocultural Dynamics in Children's Development , 1993 .

[9]  W. Hawley,et al.  Research news and Comment: Enhancing the Federal Government’s Capacity to Support the Improvement of Education Through Research and Development , 1990 .

[10]  Stephen Lafer,et al.  Authentic learning situations and the potential of Lego TC Logo , 1994 .

[11]  Suzanne K. Damarin.  Rethinking Equity: An Imperative for Educational Computing , 1989 .

[12]  Betty Collis,et al.  Sex Differences in the Association between Secondary School Students' Attitudes toward Mathematics and toward Computers. , 1987 .

[13]  Jeannie Oakes,et al.  Chapter 3: Opportunities, Achievement, and Choice: Women and Minority Students in Science and Mathematics , 1990 .

[14]  Celia Hoyles,et al.  Girls and Computers , 1988 .

[15]  S. Turkle,et al.  Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete. , 1992 .

[16]  L. Steffe,et al.  Constructivism in education. , 1995 .

[17]  Alan Durndell,et al.  The effect of computer use on gender differences in attitudes to computer , 1990 .

[18]  Penelope L. Peterson,et al.  Effective Teaching, Student Engagement in Classroom Activities, and Sex-Related Differences in Learning Mathematics , 1985 .

[19]  Rosemary E. Sutton.  Equity and Computers in the Schools: A Decade of Research , 1991 .

[20]  Marcia C. Linn,et al.  Fostering equitable consequences from computer learning environments , 1985 .

[21]  Douglas H. Clements,et al.  Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Logo Programming on Cognitive Abilities and Achievement , 1987 .

[22]  Seymour Papert,et al.  Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas , 1981 .

[23]  M. Linn,et al.  Gender, Mathematics, and Science , 1989 .

[24]  H. Grossman,et al.  Gender Issues in Education , 1994 .

[25]  Ann L. Brown.  Learning, remembering, and understanding , 1982 .

[26]  S. Papert.  The children's machine: rethinking school in the age of the computer , 1993 .

[27]  C. Martin,et al.  Bringing Young Minority Women to the Threshold of Science. , 2006 .

[28]  E. Fennema,et al.  Gender differences in mathematics performance: a meta-analysis. , 1990, Psychological bulletin.

[29]  I. Sigel,et al.  HANDBOOK OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY , 2006 .

[30]  N. Yelland,et al.  A Case Study of Six Children Learning with Logo , 1994 .

[31]  Jan Hawkins,et al.  Computers and girls: Rethinking the issues , 1985 .

[32]  Debra L Palumbo,et al.  A Comparison of the Effects of Lego TC Logo and Problem Solving Software on Elementary Students' Problem Solving Skills. , 1993 .

[33]  M. Azmitia.  Peer Interaction and Problem Solving: When Are Two Heads Better Than One?. , 1988 .

[34]  Gita Z. Wilder,et al.  Gender and computers: Two surveys of computer-related attitudes , 1985 .