Game-making as constructionist learning
I study how game making can function as a learning method rather than only an output format, especially when learners design systems, rules, and feedback as part of understanding a concept.
Research
My research connects game-making as constructionist learning, systems thinking, learner and designer agency in AI-supported creative programming, teacher learning and curriculum enactment, and evidence synthesis.
Lines of inquiry
Systems thinking and curriculum design
I am interested in how curriculum can support systems thinking by helping learners trace relationships, feedback loops, and consequences across connected parts of a problem or environment.
Teacher learning and curriculum enactment
I examine how educators interpret curriculum goals and translate them into learning tasks, facilitation, feedback, and assessment, including the role boundaries and accountability structures that shape their work.
Learner agency in AI-supported creative programming
I study how learners can remain designers of their own projects by decomposing goals, expressing system relationships, observing milestone evidence, and revising their work before and alongside AI code generation.
Evidence synthesis and methodological review
I investigate how educational intervention reviews report, specify, and use quality appraisal, and develop coding frameworks and appraisal tools to strengthen the interpretation of research evidence.
Current inquiry
Preprints, accepted conference papers, and manuscripts in progress.
Current work connects game-making and systems thinking, learner agency in AI-supported creative programming, and methodological review of educational research.
Preprint: Diagnosing Appraisal Practice in Systematic Reviews of Educational Interventions: A Methodological Review with a Draft Proposal for EIAT.
Manuscript under review: Layered Principalship: Role Boundaries, Teacher Relations, and Accountability in Chinese School Leadership Policy.
Accepted at ICCE 2026: Systems Before Code: A Goal-to-Milestone Framework for AI-Supported Creative Programming in K-12.
Manuscript under review: Have We Solved Them Yet? A Historical Analysis of Recurring Problem Constructions in Seminal Learning Design and Technology Literature.
Manuscript under review: Meaning & Purpose, Curiosity & Exploration: Motivational Rhetorics in China and Ontario Math Curricula.
Presentations
Content Analysis of Motivational Design in Mathematics Curricula: A Study of Ontario and China
Conference presentationThe 2nd Chinese Society of Education Annual Conference
Content Analysis of Motivational Design in Mathematics Curricula: A Study of Ontario and China
Poster presentationRobert Macmillan Symposium, Western University
Publications and manuscripts
Cultivating Systems Thinking through Game-Making: A Systematic Review on Curriculum Design
Educational Research Review, 2026
Diagnosing Appraisal Practice in Systematic Reviews of Educational Interventions: A Methodological Review with a Draft Proposal for EIAT
EdArXiv, 2026
Layered Principalship: Role Boundaries, Teacher Relations, and Accountability in Chinese School Leadership Policy
Manuscript under review, 2026
Systems Before Code: A Goal-to-Milestone Framework for AI-Supported Creative Programming in K-12
34th International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE 2026), Christchurch, New Zealand, 2026