In order to create deep conceptual understanding, students need to integrate knowledge pieces into coherent knowledge structures. When students first engage with new knowledge, it is fragmented and weakly connected with their existing knowledge and they need to do the integration process. However, current teaching - learning methods do not explicitly train students in order to do so. The Ph.D. work discussed in this paper aims at designing and evaluating a technology enhanced learning environment to train students in knowledge integration. The theoretical foundation of the technology enhanced learning environment is exploratory question posing, i.e., asking new questions related to a given concept. By the end of doctoral research I expect the following contributions: 1) an empirically evaluated online intervention for knowledge integration 2) cognitive scaffolds for knowledge integration (specific to data structures domain) based on exploratory questioning strategies and 3) a validated assessment framework to evaluate knowledge integration performance. I am carrying out this research in the domain of data structures and the target population is first year CS engineering undergraduates.
['Shitanshu Mishra']
Improving Students' Knowledge Integration in Data Structures