Roy D. Pea

Using semi‑structured interviews with 94 high‑school sports stakeholders (athletes, coaches, educators, parents, and athletic directors), this cross‑sectional analysis examined whether describing concussions with the word “brain” relates to perceived injury severity. Respondents who used “brain” phrases perceived concussions as more severe (p < .001), with strongest effects among coaches, suggesting that precise medical terminology may support better concussion reporting attitudes and behaviors.

Surveying 1,006 student users of the Intelligent Social Agent Replika, this study examines loneliness, perceived social support, and usage/beliefs about the chatbot. Participants reported higher loneliness than typical student populations but still perceived high social support. Many used Replika concurrently as friend, therapist, and intellectual mirror, often holding overlapping views of it as machine, intelligence, and human. Critically, 3% reported that Replika halted suicidal ideation, with comparative analyses describing this subgroup relative to other users.

To address the psychological distance that hampers climate action, the authors integrated engineering design with climate‑fiction writing for 48 high‑school students. Using a novel NLP‑based measure of linguistic abstractness on participant‑authored stories, they found a significant decrease in abstractness from pre‑ to post‑activities (Cohen’s d ≈ 1.01), suggesting the intervention made climate change more concrete in students’ thinking and may support motivation to act.

Across two laboratory experiments and two field studies (N > 270), this work tested immersive VR for teaching ocean acidification. Participants showed knowledge gains or increased inquisitiveness about climate science; some reported more positive environmental attitudes. Tracking data suggested that greater spatial exploration in VR correlated with greater knowledge change, indicating VR’s promise for environmental education.

This review synthesizes research following Wing’s call for “computational thinking” (CT) as a key competency for all learners. It clarifies definitions and components of CT, examines how CT is interpreted and operationalized in K–12 contexts, identifies gaps in evidence, and sets priorities for future inquiries to strengthen theory, curricula, assessment, and teacher preparation around CT.

Providing community guidance for video‑based research, this article addresses four challenges: (a) systematic selection within complex learning environments; (b) appropriate analytical frameworks and practices; (c) technologies for collecting, archiving, analyzing, reporting, and sharing video; and (d) ethics protocols that foster sharing and reuse while protecting participants’ rights.