PRISM :: Browsing by Author "Kim, Beaumie"

Browsing by Author "Kim, Beaumie"

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Open Access
A Comparison of an Eastern Philosophical Approach to Human Movement with a Western Approach through Teaching Overhand Throwing Skills with Grade Two Students
(2016) Lee, Hyun Suk; Katz, Larry; James R., Parker; Dwayne P., Sheehan; Wendi, Adamek; Kim, Beaumie; Clive, Hickson
The development of Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) and physical literacy (PL) are relatively new concepts in physical education. In this research paper, a novel method of teaching FMS and PL are explored using an Eastern philosophical approach to human movement. Overhand throwing was the FMS chosen for the study. As part of the process a model for understanding Eastern philosophy to human movement was developed and then a throwing curriculum integrating the model was created and compared with a Western approach using teaching game for understanding (TGfU). Grade two students were taught using one of the two approaches. The Eastern philosophical model incorporated four components: (1) visualization and observational skill development; (2) incorporation of technique, accuracy, speed and power (TASP) as a unifying principle where order of each factor is crucial; (3) bilateral body development using both sides of the body; and (4) peer-to-peer learning. To measure throwing technique, different throwing protocols were examined and intra and inter rater reliability were assessed. Based on the results, a new throwing protocol was established for use in the main study. This research was a true experimental randomized controlled trial (RCT), a multi-factor and multi-variable repeated measure designed with 84 grade two students. The independent variables included pre-, post-, and follow-up testing; bilaterality which involved the dominant and non-dominant hands; and groups (Eastern philosophical approach, traditional Western approach, and two delayed control groups). Dependent variables were technique, accuracy, speed, and power (TASP), and attitude. When results were compared between the Eastern and Western groups, both groups improved overall. In regards to technical ability, the Eastern group was significantly higher than the Western group for the non-dominant hand. In contrast, the Western group was significantly higher than the Eastern group for the dominant hand. The Eastern group’s accuracy was significantly higher than the Western group for both hands. While not statistically significant, the percentage of improvement showed that the Eastern group improved more than the Western group in TASP except for technique when using the dominant hand. There were some inconsistencies that were difficult to explain including the control group having significantly higher improvement on accuracy than either of the experimental groups. Students had four half hour lessons to learn to throw. The Western group focused on throwing with the dominant hand. During the same half hour of each lesson, the Eastern group worked equally with both the dominant and non-dominant hands. Following the study, the two delayed control groups were randomly assigned to either the Eastern or Western approach. Results from this study were inconsistent with the main study with many significant results, some supporting the Eastern approach and some supporting the Western approach. Possible explanations for this discrepancy are examined in the discussion. Based on the results, it would appear that the Eastern philosophical approach to teaching throwing has potential to improve children’s throwing ability. Future research is needed to determine what aspects of the Eastern philosophical approach have greatest impact on learning. It may be possible to apply this model to other fundamental movement skills (FMS) such as kicking and jumping to improve children’s physical literacy. An Eastern approach to human movement may have values with other participants including seniors. Perhaps integrating the best features of both Western and Eastern approaches would be optimal for improving performance.
Open Access
A Narrative Inquiry Into the Experiences of University Students with Visual Impairments: The Effects of People, Institutions, and Technology in Supporting Learning
(2016) Ostrowski, Christopher; Kowch, Eugene; Kim, Beaumie; Kenny, Natasha; Burwell, Catherine
University students with visual impairments rely on accommodations and technology to succeed, but students’ perspectives about these supports are not well known. Using a narrative inquiry, I engaged six Canadian university students with visual impairments about their experiences with accommodations and technology to support learning. The participants’ experiences were shaped by three primary themes: social interactions, instructors and institutions, and technology. Friends, family, and peers provided the participants with social and pragmatic support. The participants were challenged by people’s assumptions and stigma about vision loss. Instructors’ and institutions’ attitudes toward vision loss determined the level of support the participants received. The effectiveness of technology to support the participants’ needs depended course material and website accessibility. Meaningful dialogue between the participants, instructors, and university staff was critical for developing common understanding and student success. Future research should focus on collaboratively meeting students’ needs and creating robust accessible learning experiences.
Open Access
Aesthetic Experience in Teacher Education
(2022-09-23) Lee, Somi; Kim, Beaumie; Sengupta, Pratim; Lock, Jennifer; Clark, Douglas; Takeuchi, Miwa
This study is about how pre/in-service teachers can engage in aesthetic experience (Dewey, 1934) through conceptual artmaking in outdoor public spaces. The activity in the study is meant to develop expansive approaches to their disciplinary perspectives. My work arose from a pragmatic concern where teacher candidates in Ontario typically specialize in a particular subject area (e.g., mathematics, sciences, visual arts) during their B.Ed degrees, but then licensed to and are often required to teach in other subject areas in the public school system. To this extent, this study has a critical research question: how can conceptual art making in outdoor public places engage pre/in-service teachers in aesthetic experience through connecting and expanding their disciplinary perspectives? The sub-question is: how does collaborating with university students with different majors further affect this process? My argument includes that art as an embodied learning associated with creative action makings, can positively impact pre/in-service teachers on synthesizing their disciplinary understanding and comprehension through art. I introduce two methodologies, Art-Based Research and Design-Based Research. Both are used to design artistic approaches of educational research and generate theoretical claims for impactful learning practices for pre/in-service teachers. I also illustrate how I used constant comparison from grounded theory as a technique to analyze four types of data that are either discursive or non-discursive. The discursive data includes in-depth interviews after each workshop and field notes and the non-discursive data includes video recordings from the workshops and visual sketches in the field notes. The analysis of the data led to the development of four empirically supported theories: (1) place-based learning and meaningful transformation (Powell, 2020; Springgay & Truman, 2022), (2) expanded approaches to disciplinary perspectives, (Abrahamson & Lindgren, 2022; Ma & Hall, 2018), (3) mode of inquiry: art-based approach to teaching and learning, and (4) connecting everyday experience with schooling (Allen, 2016). This study took place during the global pandemic, in which the COVID-19 has affected people's lives immensely by limiting almost all parts of living situations, predominantly mobility, due to health concerns. The participants used the limitations and a varying degree of governance in the public spaces in Toronto as sources of learning and teaching to increase resilience in education. In this sense, I suggest that an emphasis on place-based and embodied learning (Ma & Hall, 2018) and aesthetic experience (Dewey, 1934; Greene, 2001; Grierson, 2017; Schmidt, 2010; Uhrmacher, 2009) can be helpful in designing pedagogical approaches for addressing the gaps in teacher education. Thus, my work can contribute to the growing areas of art-based learning in learning sciences (Sawyer, 2022) as well as the scholarship on expansive pedagogies in art education (Gradle, 2007; Inwood & Kennedy, 2020; Pérez & Libersat, 2016; Powell & Lajevic, 2011).
Open Access
Aesthetic Experiences and Emergent Designs for Learning in Minecraft
(2019-11) Gupta, Anindya Nandini; Kim, Beaumie; Clark, Douglas B.; Lock, Jennifer V.; Lund, Darren E.
It is often argued that learners engage deeply as they set their own learning goals by playing games such as Minecraft. This phenomenon has been widely accepted and there has been a growing body of literature examining the potential of sandbox games like Minecraft for learning opportunities. Yet, few studies have illustrated how engagement occurs through learner-generated designs in Minecraft and what that entails for design-based learning and teaching practices. The purpose of this study was to explore aesthetic engagement in Minecraft using a constructionist epistemology that would help determine the design process of playable games and constructions based on curricular topics. This dissertation presents the two designs as two cases forming a multiple case-study on design-based learning in Minecraft. The design process, was then, examined as a comparative study to understand aesthetic experiences in Minecraft. The study revealed that learners, who designed games in Minecraft underwent continuous, fulfilling, and transformative experiences. They perceived the design exercise through connections that emerged through game-play, and engaged in various trajectories of participation that drew upon computational thinking and practices, as well as gaming culture. Comparatively, learners who designed artifacts based on Social Studies curricular goals could not consistently undergo fulfilling, continuous and transformative experiences. They faced difficulty in drawing connections across domains and subjects as they could not endogenously situate the design experience based on their syntonic understanding in Minecraft. Their individual approach to design further affected their understanding and critical evaluation from multiple perspectives. These cases suggested the need for playful and participatory learning involving authentic audiences for the realization of aesthetic experiences in Minecraft. The study also implicated the need to understand the design of games like Minecraft, and the principles of learning through such mediums through a consideration of their affordances and limitations.
Open Access
Affordances of learner's game design practices
(University of Calgary, 2017-05) Kim, Beaumie; Bastani, Reyhaneh; Baradaran, Farzan; Werklund School of Education
Game play and game design require learners to think critically about contents within the game and to solve problems. We suggest that engaging learners in game design projects helps them understand school subjects deeply and develop important skills that individuals need in all situations in life (e.g., creative designs, strategic thinking). In this paper, we discuss what game design practices can afford for learners’ experience and development based on the recent game design projects that took place in two junior high schools in Western Canada.
Open Access
Building Digital Video Games at School: A Design-Based Study of Teachers’ Design of Instruction and Learning Tasks to Promote Student Intellectual Engagement, Deep Learning and Development of 21st Century Competencies
(2016-01-13) Lambert, Deborah; Jacobsen, Michele; Jacobsen, Michele; Friesen, Sharon; Kim, Beaumie; Woiceshyn, Jaana; Morrison, Dirk
With the continuous impact of advancing technologies on learning environments and today’s students, one of the challenges faced by K-12 educators in some Canadian schools is to find innovative pedagogies to intellectually engage students in deep learning of curriculum content and to promote the development and use of 21st century competencies. In an attempt to address this challenge, an intervention, the design and building of digital video games, was collaboratively implemented and explored by a research design team—the researcher, two grade 6 teachers, their students (100) and a professional development leader at a charter school in Calgary, Alberta. This intervention taps into the interest that many students already have in video games and tends to support the learning styles of today’s students. Employing one macro-cycle of the design-based research process, this intervention was adopted into the educational context, explored through the implementation of three learning tasks: game concept development, storyboarding and programming, and assessed as a potential innovative pedagogy to address the problem. This study was guided by two research questions, which focused on: (1) the ways in which teachers’ design of instruction and learning tasks need to shift to implement the intervention; and (2) the impact of the intervention on students’ intellectual engagement, deep learning of curriculum content and the development and use of 21st century competencies. Findings revealed that (1) teachers needed to employ more interaction modes to collaborate and communicate during these tasks; use extensive coaching and scaffolding; continuously use various forms of assessments with feedback loops to assess students’ progress; and use extensive conceptual and divergent thinking; and (2) as students/groups participated in these tasks’ activities, the storyboarding task seemed to represent the area of deepest learning of the curriculum content and highest intellectual engagement, and students seemed to become more proficient in all the 21st century competencies. An assessment of the findings also revealed that the intervention qualifies as a potential and developing effective innovative pedagogy for deep learning, and that findings are significant for informing K-12 educators, school jurisdictions and Alberta Education on the impact and implications of game design-based learning, in school.
Open Access
Clinical Simulation-Based Assessment in Respiratory Therapy Education
(2017) West, Andrew; Parchoma, Gale; Koh, Kim; Kim, Beaumie; Sharma, Nishan
The manuscripts that comprise this dissertation collectively investigate clinical simulation-based assessment in respiratory therapy education. Clinical simulation, characterized by debriefing that engages learners in self- and collaborative peer-assessment in addition to formative instructor assessment, is a well-established set of practices in respiratory therapy education. Contextual factors within the profession of respiratory therapy in Canada, in particular its regulatory environment, are prompting a move from using formative debriefing sessions that support learning in simulation, to employing high-stakes testing intended to assess entry-to-practice competencies. There exists a need for the profession to consider how environmental factors, including externally derived requirements, may ultimately impact the effectiveness of simulation-based learning environments. It is proposed that several important social elements of the clinical simulation-based learning environment, including trust, ontological security, and fidelity, may be at risk in the face of the evolving assessment practices in health professions education. As an at once undertheorized yet highly technologically enhanced and connected approach to learning, a shift towards socio-cultural perspectives on clinical simulation assessment, research, and practice is needed to better understand the social phenomena inherent in clinical simulation. This shift can benefit from the adoption of networked learning theory to encourage deeper understanding of the interrelationships that exist among sociomaterial dimensions of clinical simulation. The findings of a qualitative case study are presented, examining the experiences of respiratory therapy students in clinical simulation learning environments where comparable instructional designs are characterized by differences between two important assessment approaches used in the field: formative debriefing for learning and summative debriefing for high-stakes testing. The findings indicate that social aspects of participants’ experiences in clinical simulation are characterized by: their comfort levels, their senses of ontological security, and their degrees of immersion in the simulation. Each of these experiential dimensions were impacted in some manner by the assessment design, a phenomenon that was further modulated by individuals’ self-reflexive capacity. These phenomena appear to coalesce to impact learners’ perceptions of their own performance in the clinical simulation context, which was also related to the approach to assessment built into in the instructional design.
Open Access
Complexity in Facilitation of Public Computing
(2021-08-20) Hladik, Stephanie Kay; Sengupta, Pratim; Shanahan, Marie-Claire; Kim, Beaumie
Museums and other informal learning spaces have been found to be sites of playful and transformative engagement with computing, especially for learners who have been historically marginalized in the discipline. However, as educational researchers and designers create new programs and exhibits for computing in museum spaces, the roles, experiences, and labour of museum educators – those who facilitate the exhibit, answer questions, and scaffold learning – have often been ignored, with the focus instead falling mainly on the hardware and software used within the learning environment. In this manuscript-based dissertation, I bring to light the complexity of museum educators’ experiences and practices in the context of a computational science exhibit in a Canadian science centre. Firstly, I review the literature on museum educators in science museums, pointing out their high importance yet low status in their institutions, comparisons of their practice with school science teaching, a growing call for professionalization in the field, and their positioning and participation in educational research projects – often as sources of data rather than co-designers of educational innovations they are expected to enliven on a daily basis. Next, I investigate the infrastructuring done by museum facilitators as they work to support the success and sustainability of a computational science exhibit, highlighting the ways in which this hidden labour is intertwined with their personal, professional, and community practices. Finally, I zoom out to reflect on the chronological shifts in the research project as a whole, from one that is device-centered to a more praxis-centred approach through four phases: an early device-centered framing of “redesign,” recognizing infrastructuring and developing relationships with facilitators, understanding improvisational infrastructuring as hidden design work, and, finally, making space for facilitators as co-designers. Across these papers, this dissertation highlights the ways in which methodology, epistemology, and axiology are intertwined in design-based research in informal settings. Shifting away from a device- centered approach led to listening carefully to museum facilitators, acknowledging and valuing their labour, and attending to power dynamics, which is essential for centering praxis in design- based research. I conclude with implications for future design-based research in computing education that are vital to equitable imagined futures.
Open Access
Connecting Aesthetics and Engagement in Game Based Learning
(University of Calgary, 2014-05) Gupta, Diali; Kim, Beaumie; Werklund School of Education
Learning with games is perceived as highly motivating and engaging, fostering critical thinking and problem solving skills. Choosing games for classroom use however can be a difficult process. In addition to examining the content, we propose that aesthetics of digital games can indicate important information for evaluating games. Using an example we explain how aesthetics of gaming environments reveal the core learning concepts and provide complexities for deeper engagement. Our paper elucidates ways in which aesthetics provide a socio-cultural context for learners and contribute to motivations and emotions resulting in cognitive engagements.
Open Access
Design for Learning Through a Complexity Perspective: A Board Game Redesign Approach to Enabling Learning Possibilities
(2022-03) Bastani, Reyhaneh; Kim, Beaumie; Davis, Andrew Brent; Sengupta, Pratim
This doctoral study followed a conception of learning as a complex phenomenon and aimed to examine possible ways of supporting it. Drawing on insights from complexity research, particularly the notion of enabling constraints (Davis & Simmt, 2003), I explored the settings for supporting learners’ agency in pursuing their ideas and interests, while stimulating new possibilities of collective understanding and action. A design-based research was used to evaluate the potential of board game redesign in providing the settings for complexity-informed design conditions. The following questions guided this research: How would board game redesign provide the settings for enabling constraints? How would learners’ co-design practices evolve through the game redesign process? and How would learners’ decisions, ideas and interests frame their designs and open the space for using math and science in creating game systems? Using the framework of enabling constraints, the first phase analyzed the commonalities and variations in students’ collaborative practices in redesigning the board game Inversé for mathematics learning, in an elementary classroom. This analysis highlighted the importance of structured constraints at the starting point in supporting a common language. It also indicated the interconnection of the constraining and enabling aspects of the developed commonalities throughout the process. Learners’ emerging ideas and reaching higher conceptual possibilities were enabled as they developed shared goals and understandings through the project structure and cycles of unfolding co-design. The learning design in the second phase explicitly used complexity-informed conditions. It involved engaging middle school students with math and science through redesigning the cooperative board game Pandemic. Drawing on the notions of divergence and convergence of ideas and self-imposed constraints from design and creativity research (Biskjaer & Halskov, 2014; Stokes, 2009), the analytic frame in this phase focused on the processes of the evolution of learners’ practices and understanding. The findings elaborated on how the board game redesign approach not only set some structures but also enabled students to negotiate their interests and choices and collectively make decisions. Learners’ interests and decisions acted as self-imposed constraints that framed their work and could simultaneously expand their design space and engagement with math and science topics.
Open Access
Developing a Faculty-Librarian Community of Inquiry: A Blended Learning Approach to Facilitate Information Literacy Education
(2018-06-21) Melgosa, Annette Alyce; Jacobsen, Michele; Hayden, Katharine Alix; Kim, Beaumie; Raffin Bouchal, Shelley; Hughes, Janette; Burns, Amy M.
The purpose of the study was to explore how disciplinary understanding around Information Literacy (IL) might be achieved between faculty members and librarians through the design and implementation of a blended Community of Inquiry (CoI) (Garrison, 2011) Faculty-Librarians CoI Workshop (FacLibCoI) within a social constructivist epistemology. A mixed methods, design-based research (DBR) approach was used to build and test the FacLibCoI prototype and was based on Pool and Laubscher’s (2016) micro/meso iterative-cycle approach to McKenney and Reeves’ (2012) Generic Model for Educational Design Research. An environmental scan of the literature and the university where the study took place comprised phase one of the study. In addition to the review of literature, university reports were reviewed, and focus group interviews were conducted with university faculty members and students. Analysis revealed that faculty viewed research as discovery while students equated it with term papers. Students who had learned IL in general studies writing courses demonstrated good conceptual knowledge but poor implementation skills. Phase Two comprised the design phase. The FacLibCoI was designed to last two months and include three in-person sessions with accompanying asynchronous online discussions. The FacLibCoI workshop was implemented and analyzed in phase three. The design changed to four in-person sessions and two asynchronous discussions. Data included before-and-after participant interviews, transcripts, CoI questionnaires, and group artifacts. All CoI presences and metacognition were achieved in the FacLibCoI. Participants demonstrated group cohesion and disciplinary-based, shared understanding of IL, producing a disciplinary IL Model, IL learning goals mapped to disciplinary and IL standards, and an action plan for IL implementation. A CoI was established in less time than in studies reported in the literature and holds promise for scaling up. The online portion of the design proved unsustainable, and technology platforms and busy schedules were negative factors. Online collaboration between librarians and faculty may prove successful during a later departmental IL implementation phase. This phase should be considered in future iterations. Consulting participants on selection of a technological platform is advised.
Open Access
Developing Library Instruction to Support Students’ Research and Writing: Librarians and Professors Collaborating Together
(2017) Bailey, Kieren; Jacobsen, Michele; Kim, Beaumie; Hayden, Alix
The purpose of this design-based research study was to design, integrate and study library instruction in a required undergraduate writing course collaboratively with professors with the goal of influencing students’ understanding of the research and writing process. Three professors of an undergraduate general education writing course participated in this study, along with thirteen students. The initial study design called for one iteration of instruction, which included three different designs (which were primarily designed by the professors): the ‘one-shot session’ approach, a ‘partially embedded librarian’ approach and a ‘fully embedded librarian’ approach. The ‘fully embedded librarian’ approach evolved throughout the research study as the librarian and professor actively collaborated. Through this collaboration, a second iteration of the study emerged which involved a complete redesign of the curriculum for the ‘fully embedded librarian approach’ section. Data collection methods included collaborative design team meetings, faculty and student questionnaires, student research summaries, student interviews, and a researcher diary. Themes that emerged from the data using the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework were: exploration, integration, resolution, open communication, building understanding, and direct instruction. Themes that emerged from the data for library instruction were an increase in student confidence, the value of relationship building, and the role of the librarian. The value of collaboration between professors and a librarian in design-based research was a key finding of this study, and relates both to the use of the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework and to the design, delivery and evaluation of library instruction. The understanding of the librarian’s role by professors regarding teaching research and writing was key to the design and delivery of library instruction in a writing course. Library instruction can best influence student learning when students understand the role of a librarian in the classroom, as well as when they have time and opportunity to develop some comfort level in interacting with the librarian. This dissertation presents an argument for the use of design-based research and the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework to inform and study the design of library instruction in a face-to-face learning environment enhanced with technology that includes both group and individual learning activities. This dissertation also discusses implications for further research and practice.
Open Access
An Emergent Design for Mine Craft
(University of Calgary, 2016-05) Gupta, Diali; Rasporich, Stefan; Kim, Beaumie; Werklund School of Education
This paper inquires into how learners could become designers of their own learning, using a digital sandbox game, Minecraft. We suggest that learners use knowledge for academic engagement and shape the culture of their learning through participation, collaboration and communication in using Minecraft. We argue that interest-driven collaborations using Minecraft help establish the kindergarten approach to learning. We present how mid-high school students in an art immersion school used Minecraft to create emergent designs based on community-centered collaborative learning through cascade mentorship, socially situated interactions and iterative refinement that highlight their creativity.
Open Access
Gameful Space, Activities and Assessment for Game-Based Learning
(University of Calgary, 2015-06) Kim, Beaumie; Gupta, Diali; Clyde, Jerremie; Werklund School of Education
This paper discusses the iterations of designing and implementing a graduate level course on digital game-based learning at a Western Canadian university. We critically analyze the design of the course by examining the tensions that arose between the course assessment and social practices common in playing games, and discuss activities introduced to mitigate such tension. We also consider how the use of the university library’s space and resources in the second iteration provided new opportunities for the course. We explore on how “playable” the course has been and present our proposed improvements for the next iteration.
Open Access
Gamefulness in Designing Digital Game-Based Learning Through a Role-Playing Game
(University of Calgary, 2016-05) Kim, Beaumie; Gupta, Diali; Clyde, Jerremie; Werklund School of Education; Libraries and Cultural Resources
This paper discusses the third iteration of redesigning and implementing a master’s level course on Digital Game-Based Learning (DGBL). We investigated how the course redesign of activities and assessments fostered multiple ways of teaching and learning with games, digital media and play. The authors created a role-playing card game for designing digital games for learning. We used this game in the classroom, and observed that learners adopted a lusory attitude in their design and gaming task. We discuss our overall redesign emphasis on learners’ gameful participation and the preliminary findings from the classroom adoption of the card game.
Open Access
A Graduate Course as a Game to Learn About Digital Game Based Learning
(University of Calgary, 2014-05) Kim, Beaumie; Werklund School of Education
Recognizing the motivating aspects of games (e.g., points, levels), it is becoming more and more widespread to incorporate game-like elements into everyday practices (e.g., exercising). In education, experimental schools are set up to engage students in “quests” for their learning. Some higher education instructors, especially those who teach courses related to games, are attempting to incorporate game principles into the course activities and assessments. This paper discusses how the author designed and conducted a master’s level course on Digital Game-Based Learning to immerse participants into its concepts and practices, and what lessons were learned from its first implementation.
Open Access
Hybrid Space: Re-thinking Space and the Museum Experience
(2019-04-26) Baradaran Rahimi, Farzan; Levy, Richard M.; Boyd, Jeffrey Edwin; Kim, Beaumie; Eiserman, Jennifer
Development of this manuscript-based dissertation was prompted by identification of a knowledge gap between the application of hybrid space, human behavior, and harnessing playful activities for museums. Hybrid space has been explored and conceptualized in the literature, but it has yet to reach its potential as an effective medium in museums. A museum hybrid space combines physical artifacts co-located with virtual and augmented reality displays. Hybrid space borrows the power of information to empower the physical space around us using technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and augmented virtuality (AV). This research provides a new way of enhancing the quality of museum experience for audiences by adopting immersive, interactive virtual reality technology. This research demonstrates that experiencing a hybrid space, namely, VR-enhanced environment, as part of a museum exhibit, can effectively increase learning and enjoyment when compared with traditional museum exhibitions. This research builds on the prior studies on the concept of hybrid space and explores its potential as an effective medium in museums (Chapter 2). For this purpose, a model was developed in this research to enhance the quality of spatial experiences in the built environments (Chapter 3). Using this model and a history-based video game that simulates a real environment from the past (Chapter 4), a faux exhibit was set up for empirical studies (Chapter 5). Through the empirical studies, it was demonstrated that a VR-enhanced exhibition (hybrid space) can perform better to improve the museum experience for the audience in terms of learning and enjoyment when compared with traditional exhibitions (i.e. actual space), that rely on labels, photos, and videos.
Open Access
“I just won against myself!”: Fostering early numeracy through boardgame play and redesign
(2019-11) Jaques, Shayla; Kim, Beaumie; Shyleyko-Kostas, Anna; Takeuchi, Miwa A.
Children can develop a wide variety of mathematical concepts as well as positive relationships with mathematics through playing and redesigning board games. In this article, we introduce the process of integrating board game play and redesign into early mathematics classrooms. Presenting the cases from Kindergarten and Grade 3 and 4 classrooms in a linguistically and culturally-diverse school, we highlight learning opportunities that fostered early numeracy. We discuss how children used and demonstrated their understanding of integrated numeracy including subitizing, understanding ordinality and cardinality of number, area-model of multiplication, spatial reasoning and problem-posing and problem-solving. Learning that children engaged in was holistic: the project not only fostered children’s early numeracy, but also helped them develop a positive relationship with mathematics and social rules to play games together, and see themselves as designers, problem-solvers, and creative people.
Open Access
Learning Through Playing and Designing Games: A Design Thinking Approach to Entrepreneurship Education
(2022-12-16) Gatti, Wilian Jr; Kim, Beaumie; Behjat, Laleh; Clark, Douglas; Scott, David; Jenson, Jennifer
In this manuscript-based dissertation, I examine the design thinking pedagogy in entrepreneurship education as mediated by game-based learning. My game-based learning perspective embraces gameplay and game design in an integrated activity using a board game. A board game named Entrepreneurial Thinking was designed for this research, simulating an industrial market and engaging learners in design thinking in entrepreneurship education. After playing the game, students were invited to redesign it, considering aspects they missed (e.g., game elements, business topics) or problems they wanted to fix in the game. The first manuscript targets the question, “How may a business game design activity shape the designer’s assumptions about entrepreneurship education?” I approached this question through my own design journey. I aimed to understand how the design of an educational game helped me to shape my assumptions about three issues in entrepreneurship education: what entrepreneurship education means, what should be taught, and how. This design journey led me to support the ideas that entrepreneurs are designers, that design thinking should be the primary underpinning of entrepreneurship education, and that game-based learning could mediate this process. This manuscript assumed an autoethnography approach that assisted me in my self-reflection about the messy process represented by a game design. Next, I focus on the question, “How do cognitive acts build design thinking reasoning during gameplay?” I examined a group of four young male classmates who played my game in a college located in Sao Paulo, Brazil. After one of the players arrived late to the gameplay and overcame all the established businesses to win, all players agreed that luck was the explanation for that performance and the most needed attribute of entrepreneurs. Despite the random mechanism embedded in the game, I offered an alternative conclusion that emerged from video and students' reports, analyses, and interviews. I unpacked the player’s effectuation approach to explaining his performance, describing how cognitive acts built the winner's design thinking reasoning to craft a winning strategy. I contrasted this performance with one of the players who restricted his possibilities due to his causation logic and design fixation to present how to avoid misinterpretations of luck as the main reason for entrepreneurs’ success. Finally, I presented a group of four male students performing a design activity with my game in a college in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I selected this case by considering its representativeness, typicality, and transparently observable topics, as well as technical issues related to video and audio recordings. I tackled the question, “How may learners build a cognitive perspective in design by engaging in game design?” Evidence from video and audio recordings of the design session, written reports, and interviews were collected to identify four cognitive acts that supported their design reasoning. The analysis reveals that due to the absence of a repertoire of previous design solutions, the students grounded their analogies in their sociocultural context, which reflects their social norms, educational setting, professional experiences, and worldviews. They also developed a method of reasoning based on several disciplines to support and enhance their analogies. This manuscript suggested that design thinking instruction in entrepreneurship education should prioritize students’ sociocultural context and multidisciplinary projects to develop students’ design perspectives by enlarging their sources of analogies given their lack of design experience. Two contributions emerge from this manuscript-based dissertation. First, an understanding of how cognitive acts are articulated to form an effectuation logic in entrepreneurship is offered. Second, unlike traditional instruction, the experience of learning with games touches the emotional or affective dimension of engagement since it is experiential, immersive, and interactive. Furthermore, this work provided evidence that games can mediate not just fun and engaging learning experiences in entrepreneurship education, but also design thinking, storytelling, forecasting, scenario development, systems thinking, and critical thinking.
Open Access
Meeting the Challenge of Rapid Change in Media Industries: A Case Study in Media Programs at Canadian Colleges, Polytechnics, and Universities
(2019-03-28) Carver, Rob; Kim, Beaumie; Davis, Charles; Friesen, Sharon; Jacobsen, Michele; Spencer, Brenda L.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which keeping pace with rapid change in media technologies and production techniques poses a leadership challenge for post-secondary institutions offering media production programs. Contributing factors to the challenge include declining funding for capital investment, and lengthy review and approval processes for curriculum development and revision. These factors, as well as educators’ best practices in addressing the challenge, were considered in the context of relevant literature on media industries, change management, and leadership practice. Utilising a particularistic case study methodology and explanatory sequential data collection methods, the study sought to investigate a practical problem arising from everyday practice through collection of a diverse set of both quantitative and qualitative data. Specifically, data were collected through questionnaires from 96 participants working in post-secondary institutions and was supplemented by questionnaires completed by 25 media industries employers. A subset of 20 respondents to the post-secondary questionnaire participated in follow-up interviews to further clarify the findings from both the post-secondary and industry questionnaires. It is apparent from the findings that rapid and increasing change in media industries poses a very real challenge for media educators. The currency of curriculum and technical resources is an important factor in ensuring students graduate with the skills and abilities necessary to enter the work force. While there is no single ready solution to this problem, the findings also revealed the multiple tactics media educators have developed to mitigate the impact of rapid change, and the respondents’ perspectives on the potential value that project management tools, changes to organisational culture, and leadership styles might have for improving outcomes in this area. It is hoped that these findings will prove useful to media educators tasked with deciding on technologies in which to invest and at what time, and how best to integrate new production techniques into curriculum. It is also hoped that these findings will prompt further study, expand the conversation to additional stakeholders, and contribute to larger conversations around academic program development and delivery.