Learning Coding Through Gaming

This chapter begins by arguing that computational thinking and coding should be included as two more C's in the Partnership for 21st Century Learning's list of essential skills. It does so by examining how coding and computational thinking can be used to manipulate people. It argues that gaming uses all the C's, including the two new ones proposed. It then explores connections between playing video games and computer programming. It claims that game-based learning would be an optimal way to leverage these connections to teach coding and describes ways in which to do so, including specific challenges that could be included in game-based learning and a sequence of introducing them so students can “level up.” It briefly examines different coding games and describes ways in which educators can create their own coding games. It concludes by arguing that educators can make the connections between gamer thinking and computational thinking visible, use games designed to teach coding, or create their own coding games to take advantage of near transfer.

The Pursuit of Effective Working Memory Training: a Pre-registered Randomised Controlled Trial with a Novel Varied Training Protocol

Working memory (WM) training, typically entailing repetitive practice with one or two tasks, has mostly yielded only limited task-specific transfer effects. We developed and tested a new WM training approach where the task paradigm, stimulus type, and predictability of the stimulus sequence were constantly altered during the 4-week training period. We expected that this varied training protocol would generate more extensive transfer by facilitating the use of more general strategies that could be applied to a range of WM tasks. Pre-post transfer effects following varied training (VT group, n = 60) were compared against traditional training (TT group, training a single adaptive WM task, n = 63), and active controls (AC, n = 65). As expected, TT evidenced strong task-specific near transfer as compared to AC. In turn, VT exhibited task-specific near transfer only on one of the measures, and only as compared to the TT group. Critically, no evidence for task-general near transfer or far transfer effects was observed. In sum, the present form of VT failed to demonstrate broader transfer. Nevertheless, as VT has met with success in other cognitive domains, future studies should probe if and how it would be possible to design WM training protocols that promote structural learning where common features of specific tasks would be identified and utilised when selecting strategies for novel memory tasks.

Learning to diagnose X-rays: a neuroscientific study of practice-related activation changes in the prefrontal cortex

Objectives Medical expertise manifests itself by the ability of a physician to rapidly diagnose patients. How this expertise develops from a neural-activation perspective is not well understood. The objective of the present study was to investigate practice-related activation changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) as medical students learn to diagnose chest X-rays. Methods The experimental paradigm consisted of a learning and a test phase. During the learning phase, 26 medical students were trained to diagnose four out of eight chest X-rays. These four cases were presented repeatedly and corrective feedback was provided. During the test phase, all eight cases were presented together with near- and far-transfer cases to examine whether participants’ diagnostic learning went beyond simple rote recognition of the trained X-rays. During both phases, participants’ PFC was scanned using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Response time and diagnostic accuracy were recorded as behavioural indicators. One-way repeated measures ANOVA were conducted to analyse the data. Results Results revealed that participants’ diagnostic accuracy significantly increased during the learning phase (F=6.72, p<0.01), whereas their response time significantly decreased (F=16.69, p<0.001). Learning to diagnose chest X-rays was associated with a significant decrease in PFC activity (F=33.21, p<0.001) in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the orbitofrontal area, the frontopolar area and the frontal eye field. Further, the results of the test phase indicated that participants’ diagnostic accuracy was significantly higher for the four trained cases, second highest for the near-transfer, third highest for the far-transfer cases and lowest for the untrained cases (F=167.20, p<0.001) and response time was lowest for the trained cases, second lowest for the near-transfer, third lowest for the far-transfer cases and highest for the untrained cases (F=9.72, p<0.001). In addition, PFC activity was lowest for the trained and near-transfer cases, followed by the far-transfer cases and highest for the untrained cases (F=282.38, p<0.001). Conclusions The results suggest that learning to diagnose X-rays is associated with a significant decrease in PFC activity. In terms of dual-process theory, these findings support the notion that students initially rely more on slow analytical system-2 reasoning. As expertise develops, system-2 reasoning transitions into faster and automatic system-1 reasoning.

Getting at Underlying Mechanisms of Far Transfer - the Mediating Role of Near Transfer

The extent that working memory training improves performance on untrained tasks is highly controversial. Here we address this controversy by testing the hypothesis that far transfer may depend upon near transfer using mediation models in three separate randomized controlled trials (RCTs). In all three RCTs, totaling 460 individuals, performance on untrained N-back tasks (near transfer) mediated transfer to Matrix Reasoning (a measure of fluid intelligence, representing far transfer). Untrained N-back performance also mediated transfer to a working memory composite (RCT 3). These findings support a model of N-back training in which transfer to untrained n-back tasks gates further transfer, at least in the case of working memory at the construct level, and matrix reasoning. This model can help adjudicate between the many studies and meta-analyses of working memory training that have provided mixed results but have not examined the relationship between near and far transfer on an individual differences level.

The effects of dialogic reading on the expressive vocabulary of pre-school aged children with moderate to severely impaired expressive language skills

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of dialogic reading on the expressive vocabulary skills of children with moderate to severe expressive impairments. Previous research has shown positive effects of dialogic reading on the language skills of children who are typically developing and on children who are at-risk for language delays. However, there is limited research indicating the effectiveness of dialogic reading on children with moderate to severely delayed language skills. The participants in this single-case, multiple baseline across participants designed study received four weeks of individual dialogic reading intervention which was intended to increase their expressive vocabulary skills of a near-transfer vocabulary word list. The results revealed that all three participants demonstrated a significant increase in expressive vocabulary of the near-transfer vocabulary list.

Plasticity of inhibition in old age: durability, practice and transfer effects

Empirical research indicates age-related declines in three sub-functions of inhibition: access (keeping irrelevant information outside one's focus of attention), deletion (ridding working memory of no longer relevant information), and restraint (withholding automatic responses that are not appropriate for the task at hand). Although single-task inhibition training has been previously explored using a six-session Stroop task program, no research has been done to examine long-term durability of the practice gains or the impact of a multi-task approach to inhibition training in older adults. This dissertation fills these gaps in the literature with three studies. The first study evaluates the maintenance of Stroop training one and three years following initial training and finds evidence in support of long-term durability of single-task inhibition training in older adults. The remaining two studies explored the benefits of training all three sub-functions of inhibition in older adults. First, study 2 seeks to confirm the presence of age differences in all three sub-functions of inhibition - supporting a rationale for training these abilities in older adults. Last, study 3 examines the plasticity of all three sub-functions of inhibition in older adults across six retest practice sessions, and three levels of associated transfer: near-near (transfer to the tasks used at training, but with varying items), near (transfer to tasks that were not trained, but tap the same abilities as the training tasks), and far (transfer to tasks that were trained and tap abilities different from those trained). The findings indicate the older adults show retest practice gains in all three sub-functions of inhibition. Furthermore, strong evidence supports near-near transfer, while there is limited support for near transfer and no support for far transfer effects in older adults following three sub-functions of inhibition training. Taken together these studies contribute to the cognitive aging literature by evaluating several key features of plasticity in inhibition, including durability of training effects, retest practice and transfer effects. These findings have implications for the development of effective cognitive training programs in older adults.

Plasticity of inhibition in old age: durability, practice and transfer effects

Empirical research indicates age-related declines in three sub-functions of inhibition: access (keeping irrelevant information outside one's focus of attention), deletion (ridding working memory of no longer relevant information), and restraint (withholding automatic responses that are not appropriate for the task at hand). Although single-task inhibition training has been previously explored using a six-session Stroop task program, no research has been done to examine long-term durability of the practice gains or the impact of a multi-task approach to inhibition training in older adults. This dissertation fills these gaps in the literature with three studies. The first study evaluates the maintenance of Stroop training one and three years following initial training and finds evidence in support of long-term durability of single-task inhibition training in older adults. The remaining two studies explored the benefits of training all three sub-functions of inhibition in older adults. First, study 2 seeks to confirm the presence of age differences in all three sub-functions of inhibition - supporting a rationale for training these abilities in older adults. Last, study 3 examines the plasticity of all three sub-functions of inhibition in older adults across six retest practice sessions, and three levels of associated transfer: near-near (transfer to the tasks used at training, but with varying items), near (transfer to tasks that were not trained, but tap the same abilities as the training tasks), and far (transfer to tasks that were trained and tap abilities different from those trained). The findings indicate the older adults show retest practice gains in all three sub-functions of inhibition. Furthermore, strong evidence supports near-near transfer, while there is limited support for near transfer and no support for far transfer effects in older adults following three sub-functions of inhibition training. Taken together these studies contribute to the cognitive aging literature by evaluating several key features of plasticity in inhibition, including durability of training effects, retest practice and transfer effects. These findings have implications for the development of effective cognitive training programs in older adults.

Promotion of knowledge transfer and retention in year 2 medical students using an online training exercise

It was recently shown that novice medical students could be trained to demonstrate the speed-to-diagnosis and diagnostic accuracy typical of System-1-type reasoning. However, the effectiveness of this training can only be fully evaluated when considering the extent to which knowledge transfer and long-term retention occur as a result, the former of which is known to be notoriously difficult to achieve. This study aimed to investigate whether knowledge learned during an online training exercise for chest X-ray diagnosis promoted either knowledge transfer or retention, or both. Second year medical students were presented with, and trained to recognise the features of four chest X-ray conditions. Subsequently, they were shown the four trained-for cases again as well as different representations of the same conditions varying in the number of common elements and asked to provide a diagnosis, to test for near-transfer (four cases) and far-transfer (four cases) of knowledge. They were also shown four completely new conditions to diagnose. Two weeks later they were asked to diagnose the 16 aforementioned cases again to assess for knowledge retention. Dependent variables were diagnostic accuracy and time-to-diagnosis. Thirty-six students volunteered. Trained-for cases were diagnosed most accurately and with most speed (mean score = 3.75/4, mean time = 4.95 s). When assessing knowledge transfer, participants were able to diagnose near-transfer cases more accurately (mean score = 2.08/4, mean time = 15.77 s) than far-transfer cases (mean score = 1.31/4, mean time = 18.80 s), which showed similar results to those conditions previously unseen (mean score = 0.72/4, mean time = 19.46 s). Retention tests showed a similar pattern but accuracy scores were lower overall. This study demonstrates that it is possible to successfully promote knowledge transfer and retention in Year 2 medical students, using an online training exercise involving diagnosis of chest X-rays, and is one of the few studies to provide evidence of actual knowledge transfer.

An Investigation of Transfer of Learning in an English-for-Specific-Academic Writing Course: Teaching for Transfer

Despite its importance, transfer of learning is still an under-explored area of research in EAP contexts. The few EAP studies that investigated this phenomenon were mostly conducted in EGAP contexts. Studies conducted in ESAP contexts and informed by learning transfer theories are still rare. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of a teaching-for-transfer ESAP writing course on students’ ability to transfer their new learning to their subject-specific courses in a Tunisian university. The ESAP course design drew on SFL genre theories and teaching-for-transfer principles. Perkins and Salomon’s (1988) hugging and bridging strategies were blended into instruction in order to maximize the chances for learning transfer to occur. In addition, elements of Barnett and Ceci’s (2002) transfer taxonomy were used to distinguish between near transfer and far transfer. A longitudinal quantitative research design, using repeated measures, was followed. Students’ authentic written exams from the ESAP writing course and from three content subjects were analyzed in order to investigate the impact of instruction on learning transfer overtime. Results showed that near transfer occurred quite frequently while far transfer occurred in a constricted manner. The findings suggest that an ESAP writing course that blends teaching-for-transfer principles increases the chances for learning transfer to occur. However, the success of such courses depends on the close collaboration between the writing teachers and the disciplinary lecturers.

How supervision and educational supports impact medical students’ preparation for future learning of endotracheal intubation skills: a non-inferiority experimental trial

Background Professional education cannot keep pace with the rapid advancements of knowledge in today’s society. But it can develop professionals who can. ‘Preparation for future learning’ (PFL) has been conceptualized as a form of transfer whereby learners use their previous knowledge to learn about and adaptively solve new problems. Improved PFL outcomes have been linked to instructional approaches targeting learning mechanisms similar to those associated with successful self-regulated learning (SRL). We expected training that includes evidence-based SRL-supports would be non-inferior to training with direct supervision using the outcomes of a ‘near transfer’ test, and a PFL assessment of simulated endotracheal intubation skills. Method This study took place at the University of Toronto from October 2014 to August 2015. We randomized medical students and residents (n = 54) into three groups: Unsupervised, Supported; Supervised, Supported; and Unsupervised, Unsupported. Two raters scored participants’ test performances using a Global Rating Scale with strong validity evidence. We analyzed participants’ near transfer and PFL outcomes using two separate mixed effects ANCOVAs. Results For the Unsupervised, Supported group versus the Supervised, Supported group, we found that the difference in mean scores was 0.20, with a 95% Confidence Interval (CI) of − 0.17 to 0.57, on the near transfer test, and was 0.09, with a 95% CI of − 0.28 to 0.46, on the PFL assessment. Neither mean score nor their 95% CIs exceeded the non-inferiority margin of 0.60 units. Compared to the two Supported groups, the Unsupervised, Unsupported group was non-inferior on the near transfer test (differences in mean scores were 0.02 and − 0.22). On the PFL assessment, however, the differences in mean scores were 0.38 and 0.29, and both 95% CIs crossed the non-inferiority margin. Conclusions Training with SRL-supports was non-inferior to training with a supervisor. Both interventions appeared to impact PFL assessment outcomes positively, yet inconclusively when compared to the Unsupervised and Unsupported group, By contrast, the Unsupervised, Supported group did not score well on the near transfer test. Based on the observed sensitivity of the PFL assessment, we recommend researchers continue to study how such assessments may measure learners’ SRL outcomes during structured learning experiences.