Andrea A Disessa
Biographic Data
| ID | 3477304 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andrea A Disessa |
| GIVEN NAMES | Andrea A |
| FAMILY NAME | Disessa |
| SIGNATURE | DISESSA A A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Berkeley |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5060-9119 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 206 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Learning about abstract systems
Conceptual Change and Developmental Teaching
I am happy to provide a commentary on Thomas Gennen’s article (this issue) on the relation between conceptual change research and developmental teaching (DT), the latter referring to what might be described as neo-Vygotskian approaches to educational problems largely instigated in Soviet-era Russian psychology and educational work. To begin, I very strongly resonate with the larger effort behind the work. It is too often the case that research tr…
Conceptual Change in a Microcosm
This article examines a remarkable learning event where a high school class developed, on its own, a stable, normative view of thermal equilibration. The event is also notable because the intuitive ideas that students bootstrapped into their model of equilibration have been thoroughly documented in prior research. Therefore, the process of changing prior conceptions is well delineated. The main point of the article is to review what happened in t…
Microgenetic Learning Analysis
This paper introduces and exemplifies a qualitative method for studying learning, microgenetic learning analysis (MLA), which is aimed jointly at developing theory and at establishing useful empirical results. Among modern methodologies, the focus on theory is somewhat distinctive. We use two strategies to describe MLA. First, we develop a framework for comparing the focus and means of different methods, particularly qualitative methods, aimed at…
Changing Conceptual Change
This article reviews Giyoo Hatano’s ground-breaking theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions to conceptual change research. In particular, his discovery of ‘vitalism’ as part of children’s legitimate and distinctive biology at early ages stands as a landmark. In addition, his work reinterpreted childhood ‘personification,’ changing it from an indicator of deficient intellect, to a creative and often insightful strategy for coming …
Design Experiments in Educational Research
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 tho…
Changing Minds
An impassioned guide to how computers can fundamentally change how we learn and think.Andrea diSessa's career as a scholar, technologist, and teacher has been driven by one important question: can education—in particular, science education—be transformed by the computer so that children can learn more, learn more easily at an earlier age, and learn with pleasure and commitment? This book is diSessa's informed and passionate affirmative answer to …
Misconceptions Reconceived
This article uses a critical evaluation of research on student misconceptions in science and mathematics to articulate a constructivist view of learning in which student conceptions play productive roles in the acquisition of expertise. We acknowledge and build on the empirical results of misconceptions research but question accompanying views of the character, origins, and growth of students' conceptions. Students have often been viewed as holdi…
Toward an Epistemology of Physics
Learning about knowing
Can computers teach about what it means to know and make us better learners
A Principled Design for an Integrated Computational Environment
Boxer is a computer language designed to be the base of an integrated computational environment providing a broad array of functionality -- from text editing to programming -- for naive and novice users. It stands in the line of Lisp inspired languages (Lisp, Logo, Scheme), but differs from these in achieving much of its understandability from pervasive use of a spatial metaphor reinforced through suitable graphics. This paper describes a set of …
Design Experiments in Educational Research
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 tho…
Learning about knowing
Can computers teach about what it means to know and make us better learners
A Principled Design for an Integrated Computational Environment
Boxer is a computer language designed to be the base of an integrated computational environment providing a broad array of functionality -- from text editing to programming -- for naive and novice users. It stands in the line of Lisp inspired languages (Lisp, Logo, Scheme), but differs from these in achieving much of its understandability from pervasive use of a spatial metaphor reinforced through suitable graphics. This paper describes a set of …
Toward an Epistemology of Physics
Misconceptions Reconceived
This article uses a critical evaluation of research on student misconceptions in science and mathematics to articulate a constructivist view of learning in which student conceptions play productive roles in the acquisition of expertise. We acknowledge and build on the empirical results of misconceptions research but question accompanying views of the character, origins, and growth of students' conceptions. Students have often been viewed as holdi…
Changing Minds
An impassioned guide to how computers can fundamentally change how we learn and think.Andrea diSessa's career as a scholar, technologist, and teacher has been driven by one important question: can education—in particular, science education—be transformed by the computer so that children can learn more, learn more easily at an earlier age, and learn with pleasure and commitment? This book is diSessa's informed and passionate affirmative answer to …
Design Experiments in Educational Research
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 tho…
Changing Conceptual Change
This article reviews Giyoo Hatano’s ground-breaking theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions to conceptual change research. In particular, his discovery of ‘vitalism’ as part of children’s legitimate and distinctive biology at early ages stands as a landmark. In addition, his work reinterpreted childhood ‘personification,’ changing it from an indicator of deficient intellect, to a creative and often insightful strategy for coming …
Microgenetic Learning Analysis
This paper introduces and exemplifies a qualitative method for studying learning, microgenetic learning analysis (MLA), which is aimed jointly at developing theory and at establishing useful empirical results. Among modern methodologies, the focus on theory is somewhat distinctive. We use two strategies to describe MLA. First, we develop a framework for comparing the focus and means of different methods, particularly qualitative methods, aimed at…
Conceptual Change in a Microcosm
This article examines a remarkable learning event where a high school class developed, on its own, a stable, normative view of thermal equilibration. The event is also notable because the intuitive ideas that students bootstrapped into their model of equilibration have been thoroughly documented in prior research. Therefore, the process of changing prior conceptions is well delineated. The main point of the article is to review what happened in t…
Conceptual Change and Developmental Teaching
I am happy to provide a commentary on Thomas Gennen’s article (this issue) on the relation between conceptual change research and developmental teaching (DT), the latter referring to what might be described as neo-Vygotskian approaches to educational problems largely instigated in Soviet-era Russian psychology and educational work. To begin, I very strongly resonate with the larger effort behind the work. It is too often the case that research tr…
Learning about abstract systems
Psychology (9 works) · Cognitive science (6 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Mathematics education (6 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Artificial Intelligence (3 works) · Developmental psychology (3 works) · Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods (3 works)