Doris Jorde & Sonja Mork

The University of Oslo, Norway

Hajime Shirouzu

Chukyo University, Japan

Frank Fischer & Ingo Kollar

Psychologisches Institut, Tuebingen, Germany

Abstract

The Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) offers an innovative Web-based curriculum environment where students of all ages collaborate in design, debate, or critique activities using materials drawn from the Internet. For the past four years, the WISE project has collaborated with researchers from different nations who wished to implement their own investigations of learning and instruction using the highly flexible WISE technology platform. These collaborations have resulted in the language translation of the technology platform and curriculum materials, and have also adapted the WISE pedagogical method in response to variations in the educational systems across nations. Collaborations are currently established with Norway, The Netherlands, Israel, Germany, and Japan.

These international partnerships have advanced the WISE technology architecture and provided opportunities for cross-cultural research. Additionally, the multi-language functionality provides new opportunities for curriculum activities where students from different nations collaborate in science inquiry projects. WISE can scaffold inquiry activities for students in their native language, enabling them to exchange artifacts (e.g., models or data) and receive feedback, perhaps in a common language (e.g., English, or another language being learned by one group). Our interactive session will simulate such an activity by providing a common inquiry activity to be performed by participants speaking four different languages: Norwegian, English, German, and Japanese. Each language group will conduct a short inquiry project in the topic of global warming, exploring issues that pertain to their own geographical region, creating a causal map that reflects those issues, and exchanging those maps with peers from different language groups. The session will conclude with an online discussion in English concerning the lessons learned from international peers.