The Role of Emotion in Propelling the SMET Process

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Exploring the Role of Emotion in Propelling the SMET Learning ProcessThe proposed research aims to build a computerized Learning Companion that will be sensitive to the affective aspects of learning and that will work with the child to facilitate the child's own efforts at learning. Learning complex ideas in science, math, engineering, and technology and developing the cognitive reasoning skills these areas demand often involves failure and a host of associated affective responses. When learning proceeds via human-human interaction, it is often improved by communication of affective cues (such as frustration, confusion, or interest), and by adaptation of the learning experience to such cues (adjusting pace of presentation, interjecting motivation, offering an additional view, etc.). When learning involves human-machine interaction, the human communication about when, where, how, and how important it is to adapt also often involves emotional information; however, today's computers largely ignore this information. Affective computing has the potential to expand human-computer interaction by extending computing to include emotional communication together with appropriate means of handling affective information. The proposed research aims to bring new tools of affective computing into the reach of educators, to begin to change computer-based learning from a style that ignores emotions to a style that can begin to respond appropriately to student emotions. The initial focus is on building a system that (1) helps students increase their awareness and mastery of the important role that emotions can play in learning and (2) facilitates the child's learning, by occasionally prompting with questions or feedback, and by watching and responding to the affective state of the child-watching for signs of frustration and boredom that may precede quitting, for signs of curiosity or interest that tend to indicate active exploration, and for signs of enjoyment and mastery, which might indicate a successful learning experience. Tools developed for the Learning Companion should also be useful for intelligent tutoring systems, and should help give insight into new theories of motivation and emotion in teaching; however, the Learning Companion is not a teacher or tutor that knows the answers, but a player on the side of the student. The companion will be sensitive to the learning trajectory of each student, helping him or her learn, and in so doing, learn how to learn better. At the same time, the Learning Companion will serve as an interactive system for helping researchers identify and better understand ways in which emotion is expressed, communicated, and handled in successful science, math, engineering, and technology learning experiences.