A Case Study of Cooperative Inquiry Techniques in a Classroom of

Children with Special Learning Needs

Elizabeth Foss, Mona Leigh Guha, and Panagis Papadatos

efoss@umd.edu5/22/12

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What is Cooperative Inquiry?

Druin, A. (2002). The role of children in the design of new technology. Behavior and Information Technology, 21(1), 1-25.

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Why Children with Special Learning Needs?

Core belief of Participatory Design….Expanding Cooperative Inquiry to a broader

population

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Can Cooperative Inquiry be successfully implemented in a classroom of children with special learning needs?

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Maple SchoolPrivate school for children ages 5-14 (grades K-8)Disorders represented include mild to moderate

autism spectrum, learning disabilities, and attention deficits

Two teachers and approximately 10 students per class

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Project

“Design a sports game using technology”

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Design Sessions

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Design SessionsTable 1: Techniques, Rationale, and Activity

Technique Session Purpose Activity

Big Paper Generate initial design directions

Drawing and writing design ideas on large sheets of paper

Mixing Ideas Combine multiple design directions

Physically recombining artifacts from Big Paper

Bags of Stuff Allow a break from project Using arts and crafts supplies to plan for age-mates’ design project

Storyboarding Refine ideas, visual design feedback

Annotating paneled drawings of the game’s story

Sticky Noting Generate feedback on prototype

Writing feedback on post-it notes, which are then clustered by theme

KidReporting Generate data, gather final feedback

Students interviewing each other about the game using video cameras

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Table 1: Techniques, Rationale, and Activity

Technique

Big Paper

Mixing Ideas

Bags of Stuff

Storyboarding

Sticky Noting

KidReporting

Design Sessions

Walsh et al., 2009

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Table 1: Techniques, Rationale, and Activity

Technique

Big Paper

Mixing Ideas

Bags of Stuff

Storyboarding

Sticky Noting

KidReporting

Design Sessions

Guha et al., 2004

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Table 1: Techniques, Rationale, and Activity

Technique

Big Paper

Mixing Ideas

Bags of Stuff

Storyboarding

Sticky Noting

KidReporting

Design Sessions

Druin, 2002

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Table 1: Techniques, Rationale, and Activity

Technique

Big Paper

Mixing Ideas

Bags of Stuff

Storyboarding

Sticky Noting

KidReporting

Design Sessions

Orr et al., 1994

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Table 1: Techniques, Rationale, and Activity

Technique

Big Paper

Mixing Ideas

Bags of Stuff

Storyboarding

Sticky Noting

KidReporting

Design Sessions

Walsh et al., 2009

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Table 1: Techniques, Rationale, and Activity

Technique

Big Paper

Mixing Ideas

Bags of Stuff

Storyboarding

Sticky Noting

KidReporting

Design Sessions

Bekker et al., 2003

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Data Collection

Design ArtifactsVideo and Photos

Researcher JournalInterview Transcripts

Adult Debriefing Notes Participant-observation Notes

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Analysis

Qualitative coding of all data collected using grounded theory approach (Strauss and Corbin, 2008)

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Findings

Cooperative Inquiry techniques were able to be used with a classroom of children with special learning needs with only minor modifications.

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Cooperative Inquiry in a Classroom of Children with Special Learning Needs

Informal TimeHigh Adult-to-Child RatioWritten and Auditory DirectionsPlan for High Engagement

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Ongoing Work

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AcknowledgementsThanks to the students, teachers, and administration at

the Maple School for their open-minded assistance with this project. Researchers contributing to the session planning and execution were Greg Walsh, Jason Yip, and Tamara Clegg, and we could not have had successful sessions without their expertise.

http://www.heypano.com/thegame/