Learning and Reasoning Lab

The Learning and Reasoning laboratory studies, designs and develops new methods, materials and tools for teaching and learning mathematics, programming and computational thinking. The main target group is children and youth from basic education all through introductory level at universities and polytechnics. Teachers at these levels make up another target group, as we seek to aid teachers in their teaching through training and support for the new methods, materials and tools. The research is both constructive and empirical, often based on an action research framework. Our methods and tools are evaluated in practice in real life contexts, and feedback from these studies are used as a basis for improvement and further development.

Currently our research focuses on four main areas: (a) teaching mathematics using structured derivations, (b) developing an interactive learning environment for mathematics and other subjects, (c) teaching formal methods in programming using invariant based programming, (d) developing methods and materials for introducing computational thinking and programming in different subjects at K-9 level.

Research Unit Web Page: https://research.it.abo.fi/research/learning-and-reasoning-laboratory

Leader of the unit

Ralph-Johan Back Tapio Salakoski

Researchers

Johannes Eriksson Mikko Laakso Linda Mannila Patrick Sibelius Petri Salmela

Doctoral Students

Teemu Rajala Mia Peltomäki Erkki Kaila

Unit Members

Stefan Asikainen Kim Gustavsson Matti Hutri Joonatan Jalonen Jenna Lainio Antti Lempinen Marie Linden-Slotte Saara Mäkinen Petri Sallasmaa Anton Tarasyuk Aman Yadev Johan Ånäs

Projects

ViRum

Virtuellt gymnasium för Svenskfinland (virum.fi) (Kulturfonden 2014–2016)

eMath2

Interactive e-books for high school mathematics (Kulturfonden 2014–2016)

Where academic tradition
meets the exciting future