Discovery Learning with Tangible Technologies: the Case of Children with Intellectual Disabilities

Discovery learning with tangible technologies: the case of children with intellectual disabilities Taciana Pontual da Rocha Falcão Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the regulations of the Institute of Education, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Institute of Education University of London September 2014 Abstract Intellectual disabilities cause significant sub-average achievement in learning, with difficulties in perception, attention, communication of ideas, language acquisition, abstraction and generalisation. From a socio-constructionist perspective, digital technologies can provide resources to help addressing these difficulties. Tangible technologies are considered particularly promising tools for children with intellectual disabilities, by enabling interaction through physical action and manipulation and facilitating representational concrete- abstract links by integrating physical and digital worlds. However, hands-on learning activities remain a recommended but problematic approach for intellectually disabled students. This thesis investigates how and which characteristics of tangible interaction may support children with intellectual disabilities to productively engage in discovery learning. Empirical studies were performed where children with intellectual disabilities used four tangible systems with distinct design characteristics. Four broad themes emerged from qualitative analysis which are central for identifying how to best support exploratory interaction: types of digital representations; physical affordances; representational mappings; and conceptual metaphors. Guidelines for the development of tangible artefacts and facilitation of discovery learning activities with tangibles were derived from these themes. A complementary quantitative analysis investigated the effects of external guidance in promoting episodes of discovery in tangible interaction. This thesis argues that providing tangible interaction alone is not sufficient to bring significant benefits to the experience of intellectually disabled students in discovery learning. Visual digital representations, meaningful spatial configurations of physical representations, temporal and spatial contiguity between action and representations, simple causality and familiar conceptual metaphors are critical in providing informational intrinsic feedback to exploratory actions, which allied with external guidance that creates a minimal underlying structure for interaction, should establish an ideal environment for discovery. 2 Acknowledgements I grew up with Pedro. Since his birth, I have been watching him struggle in life. My brother kept changing schools and fighting the world, and could never do his maths homework, as hard as I tried to teach him. No precise diagnosis was given by doctors, and no causes were ever more than possibilities. Pedro could never adjust to our middle class, intellectual family. He could never reach us and we could never reach him. But most of all, he could never fully benefit from the school environment. Pedro now works in a shop and is getting married next year. This thesis is for him, and for all other Pedros that are now in school, or are yet to be born. Perhaps - who knows - this work can help them do their maths. As lonely a journey as it can be, a PhD involves more people than it may seem. I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Sara Price for accepting me as a student when I first came to London, welcoming me at the London Knowledge Lab and offering me my first cup of English tea. I would like to thank her as well for the constant support, for providing the materials and infrastructure that were crucial for this research, helping out with the empirical studies, revising the thesis in detail throughout all phases of the work, and for understanding when I needed time to think. I would also like to acknowledge the fantastic opportunity of having Professor Diana Laurillard as a co-supervisor, and thank her for taking the time to read this work and contribute with all her experience. Thanks to Professor Carey Jewitt, Dr. William Farr and Wedad Al-Gawhary for their most generous help in conducting the empirical studies and thanks to all staff of the London Knowledge Lab for their patience when we had kids running all over the place. A very special thanks to these kids and their teachers, who made efforts to take voluntary part in this research. It goes without saying that their contribution was priceless and fundamental to this work. I really hope our joint efforts contribute to the future scenario of special education. Most of this work was undertaken when I was away from my sunny hometown to a gloomy London on my own, and I could not forget that Nicola, Chris, Malini, Stacey and Catriona were more than housemates - they were family. In particular, thank you Nicola for laughing at Friends with me, for always giving 3 the best advice and for helping me adjust by showing what it means to be British; thank you Chris for always forgetting I didn’t (initially) take milk in my tea because now I realise how much better it is; and thank you Malini for sharing Indian dinners and the unforgettable smiles of your sweet little boy, which I believe kept both of us going. My PhD mates, Natasha, Malini, Mercedes, Kanako, Rania and Tereza, made life so much easier and warmer with coffee and girly chitchat at The Brunswick, while my Brazilian friends and family back home kept me company through gtalk during cold weekends of study. None of this would ever have happened if it weren’t for my dad Jorge, who softly pushed me out of my comfort zone to this PhD abroad that opened so many doors, who has always been as proud of me as I am of him, and who will always be my example of researcher and lecturer. It all started with this little girl waiting at her father’s office after school, wandering in meetings and university classes, and reading theses’ acknowledgements because they were pretty much all she could understand from the shelves those times. Many years later, I was back to my dad’s office to discuss Vygotsky and Piaget, and was having Skype meetings with him on cluster analysis. Life goes on while you do a PhD. I am now a passionate lecturer at the Brazilian university UFRPE, and would like to thank my dear students for their support and patience when I could not be there for them because I was finishing my thesis. Thanks also to my colleagues at UFRPE for sparing me from admin work and for the classroom replacements during the final months. Last but not least, my mom Rosa was as patient, giving me shelter and care at all times, always strong and present, reacting to my “I can't mom, I have to study” by giving me food, space, time and love. And thank you Davi for being the most understanding and caring person I have ever met. 4 Declaration I hereby declare that, except where explicit attribution is made, the work presented in this thesis is entirely my own. Signature: Date: 1st of September 2014 Word count (exclusive of appendices and bibliography): 83,071 words. 5 Table of contents Chapter 1 - Introduction................................................................................................................16 Chapter 2 - Special educational needs.....................................................................................20 Philosophical perspectives.................................................................................................... 20 Policies and classifications.................................................................................................... 23 Intellectual disabilities............................................................................................................ 27 The context of schools............................................................................................................. 31 Implications ................................................................................................................................. 34 Chapter 3 – Theoretical foundations for learning..............................................................37 Learning by doing...................................................................................................................... 38 The importance of physical interaction...................................................................... 38 Constructing knowledge through action.................................................................... 41 Learning through discovery............................................................................................. 43 The role of external representations ................................................................................ 47 Symbolic mediation............................................................................................................. 48 Educational manipulatives............................................................................................... 49 Digital technologies as mediators ................................................................................. 52 The case of learners with intellectual disabilities....................................................... 54 Implications ................................................................................................................................. 58 Chapter 4 – Tangible technologies............................................................................................60 Defining tangible technologies ...........................................................................................

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