Design Experiments in Educational Research
2003/01/01 by Paul Cobb, Jere Confrey, Andrea diSessa +3 · 3,492 citations
Engineering · Psychology · #Artificial intelligence #Computer science #Data mining #Data science #Design Education and Practice #Domain (mathematical analysis) #Engineering #Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods #Management science #Mathematics education #Measure (data warehouse) #Psychology #Range (aeronautics) #Research design #Sociology #Variety (cybernetics)
paper · doi:10.3102/0013189x032001009
published in Educational Researcher 32(1), 9-13 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2003/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract
In this article, the authors first indicate the range of purposes and the variety of settings in which design experiments have been conducted and then delineate five crosscutting features that collectively differentiate design experiments from other methodologies. Design experiments have both a pragmatic bent—“engineering” particular forms of learning—and a theoretical orientation—developing domain-specific theories by systematically studying those forms of learning and the means of supporting them. The authors clarify what is involved in preparing for and carrying out a design experiment, and in conducting a retrospective analysis of the extensive, longitudinal data sets generated during an experiment. Logistical issues, issues of measure, the importance of working through the data systematically, and the need to be explicit about the criteria for making inferences are discussed.
Cited by
- Organizing Research and Development at the Intersection of Learning, Implementation, and Design
- Combining debates and reflective activities to develop students' argumentation on socioscientific issues
- Cultural processes in science education: Supporting the navigation of multiple epistemologies
- Argument‐Driven Inquiry as a way to help students learn how to participate in scientific argumentation and craft written arguments: An exploratory study
- The Knowledge and Practices of High School Science Teachers in Pursuit of Cultural Responsiveness
- High School Students Experimenting with Computational Chemistry: Design-Based Research on and through the “Comp-Chem-Lab”
- Developing Learning Theory by Refining Conjectures Embodied in Educational Designs
- Design-based research: What it is and why it matters to studying online learning
- Disciplinary Literacies and Learning to Read for Understanding: A Conceptual Framework for Disciplinary Literacy
- The role of mixed methods in conducting design-based research
- Changing Concepts in Activity: Descriptive and Design Studies of Consequential Learning in Conceptual Practices
- “ How Do These Data Make You Feel ?” The Emergence of Emotional Pathways in Community Science Data Talks About Climate Justice Issues
- Development and evaluation of a training on need-supportive teaching in physical education: Qualitative and quantitative findings
- Design-based research and technology-enhanced learning environments
- Teacher induction as an ecosystem of practices: developing a new lens to understand the interrelated work of stakeholders
- The Case for Multifaceted, Integrative Motivation Interventions Embedded in Classrooms
- Measuring cultural aspects of teacher–child interactions to foster equitable developmental opportunities for young Latino children
- Constructively aligned teaching and learning in higher education in engineering: what do students perceive as contributing to the learning of interdisciplinary thinking?
- Emotion, place, and practice: Exploring the interplay in children's engagement in ecologists' sampling practices
- Conceptualizing Research–Practice Partnerships as Joint Work at Boundaries
- Toward a more empathic, connected, and humanizing democracy: A civics curriculum centering listening and storytelling
- Leveraging Internal Partnerships for Design-Based Research in Museum Education
- The Death and Rebirth of Research in Education in the Age of AI: Problems and Promises
- “My thinking has changed but beliefs have not”: Motivated reasoning in learning to teach abortion
- An education in educational technology
- From design experiments to formative interventions
- The assessment cycle: a model for learning through peer assessment
- Facilitating the Transition from Empirical Arguments to Proof
- Pairing Principles From Participatory Design Research and Design-Based Research to Center Latina/x Youth in an Afterschool Program
- Advancing Quantum Information Science Pre-College Education: The Case for Learning Sciences Collaboration
- Synthesizing Professional Knowledge and Racial Literacy Content Through Explicit Composing Instruction: A Discourse Synthesis Study
- Bakhtin and the carnival: humour in school children’s film making
- Design approaches in technology enhanced learning
- Reaping the fruits of co-creation through design experiments
- Emergent Bilingual Students and Digital Multimodal Composition: A Systematic Review of Research in Secondary Classrooms
- Getting critical with compelling questions: Shifts in elementary teacher candidates’ curriculum planning from inquiry to critical inquiry
- Problem solving in the United States, 1970–2008: research and theory, practice and politics
- Improving the scaffolds of a mobile-assisted Chinese character forming game via a design-based research cycle
- STEM Practices: A translational framework for large-scale STEM education design
- A design research study of a curriculum and diagnostic assessment system for a learning trajectory on equipartitioning
- From Geocentrism to Allocentrism: Teaching the Phases of the Moon in a Digital Full-Dome Planetarium
- Developing statistical modelers and thinkers in an introductory, tertiary-level statistics course
- Enhancing Students' Inferential Reasoning: From Hands-On To “Movies”
- Using instructional design process to improve design and development of Internet interventions. [europepmc]
- Managing the complexity of doing it all: an exploratory study on students' experiences when trained stepwise in conducting consultations. [europepmc]
- Making sense of movement in embodied design for mathematics learning. [europepmc]
- Teaching students to think spatially through embodied actions: Design principles for learning environments in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. [europepmc]
- Acquiring Science and Social Studies Knowledge in Kindergarten Through Fourth Grade: Conceptualization, Design, Implementation, and Efficacy Testing of Content-Area Literacy Instruction (CALI). [europepmc]
- Design-based research on teacher facilitation practices for serious gaming in formal schooling. [europepmc]
- Improving the design of a mCSCL Chinese character forming game with a distributed scaffolding design framework. [europepmc]
- The role of video-based discussion in model for preparing professional development leaders. [europepmc]
- Co-Designing an Intervention to Prevent Overweight and Obesity among Young Children and Their Families in a Disadvantaged Municipality: Methodological Barriers and Potentials. [europepmc]
- Designing meta-resources for mathematics teachers in the context of curriculum reforms: the case of digital technology use and student autonomy in France. [europepmc]
- Teaching Magnetoelectric Sensing to Secondary School Students-Considerations for Educational STEM Outreach. [europepmc]
- People use math as a weapon: critical mathematics consciousness in the time of COVID-19. [europepmc]
- Mathematical modelling and discrete mathematics: opportunities for modern mathematics teaching. [europepmc]
- A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) in Biology: Developing Systems Thinking through Field Experiences in Restoration Ecology. [europepmc]
- The effect of interprofessional education on interprofessional professionalism behaviors of the surgical team members. [europepmc]
- Motivating and Shaping Scientific Argumentation in Lab Reports. [europepmc]
- Design, development, and evaluation of a virtual reality game-based application to support computational thinking. [europepmc]
- Facilitating an Interprofessional Course on Climate Change and Public Health Preparedness. [europepmc]
- A Framework for Evidentiary Reasoning in Biology: Insights from Laboratory Courses Focused on Evolutionary Tree-thinking. [europepmc]
- Bridging the gap: fostering interactive stimming between non-speaking autistic children and their parents. [europepmc]
- Comparing an In-Person and Online Continuing Education Intervention to Improve Professional Decision-Making: A Mixed Methods Study. [europepmc]
- Examining an Evolving Biologically Inspired Design Professional Learning Environment through Conjecture Mapping and Design-Based Research. [europepmc]
- Exploring AR and VR Tools in Mathematics Education Through Culturally Responsive Pedagogies. [europepmc]
- Examining the "Messiness" of Transitions Between Related Artifacts. [europepmc]
- The Case for Multifaceted, Integrative Motivation Interventions Embedded in Classrooms. [europepmc]
Related