2013/06/27 by Noah S. Podolefsky, Podolefsky, Noah S., Emily B. Moore +3 · 2 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Digital Games and Media #Educational Games and Gamification #FOS: Physical sciences #Flow Experience in Various Fields #Physics Education (physics.ed-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1306.6544
openalex publication_date 2013/06/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We build on theoretical foundations of tool-mediated learning, tool design,\nand human computer interaction to develop a framework for implicit scaffolding\nin learning environments. Implicit scaffolding employs affordances,\nconstraints, cueing, and feedback in order to frame and scaffold student\nexploration without explicit guidance, and it is a particularly useful design\nframework for interactive simulations in science and mathematics. A key purpose\nof implicit scaffolding is to support a range of educational goals including\naffect, process, and content. In particular, the use of implicit scaffolding\ncreates learning environments that are productive for content learning and are\nable to simultaneously support the affective goals of student agency and\nownership over the learning process - goals that may not be addressed in more\ndirected learning environments. We describe how the framework is applied in the\ncontext of the Energy Skate Park: Basics simulation, a simulation aimed at\nmiddle school student learning of energy concepts. Interview data provides an\nexemplar of the process by which implicit scaffolding can support productive\nstudent exploration with a computer simulation. While we present this framework\nfor implicit scaffolding in the context of computer simulations, the framework\ncan be extended and adapted to apply to a range of tool-mediated learning\nenvironments.\n