ABSTRACT
This paper’s focus is on how we can enhance the way students in middle school use second-hand expert cases to reason. We examine the issue in the context of Learning By Design™ (Kolodner, et. al, 1998, 2003) classrooms where students learn science in the context of addressing interesting design challenges. We have previously identified the roles cases can play in helping students learn science better, several difficulties students have with interpreting and applying cases, and the roles teachers can play in guiding students as they grapple with those difficulties (Owensby & Kolodner, 2002). We have also developed a software tool, the Case Application Suite (Owensby & Kolodner, 2002) to help students through some of the difficulties. Its design is based on suggestions from the transfer and case-based reasoning literatures and the approach to education called cognitive apprenticeship. In this paper, we discuss the design of the software, present data from an early analysis of its effectiveness, and attempt to draw some preliminary conclusions about the feasibility of dividing up responsibilities for scaffolding student learning between teacher, peers, and software tool.
