IERI: Learning-Oriented Dialogs in Cognitive Tutors: Toward a Scalable Solution to Performance Orientation

拟议的工作将评估四个认知导师中级数学课程在一系列学校（包括城市和郊区学校）中的使用情况，并将这些课程与不涉及教育软件的课程的效果进行比较。将开发方法，使辅导软件能够检测与不良学习结果相关的无效行为。一系列的研究将提出这样一个假设，即教学软件可以成为创造一个以学习为导向的课堂的工具，如果它能让学生参与“以学习为导向的对话”，旨在帮助学生关注和反思以学习为导向的行为，那么它就能带来更好的学习效果。以下方法将被评估：在解决问题的活动之前和期间提供交互式陈述性指导，让学生在辅导课程开始时设定学习目标，以及让学生与其他学生或自动学习伙伴代理进行讨论，在讨论中他们评估自己或彼此的学习行为。在这些研究中使用的前、后评价将被设计用来检测浅层学习，探测学生理解的深度，评估他们是否能快速吸收新材料（即学生是否成为更好的未来学习者），以及评估学生的目标取向和动机。提出的研究将对学生使用技术的浅学习和无效学习行为的原因和程度产生新的认识。它还将产生关于教学软件如何帮助学生克服这些问题并成为更好的学习者的新知识。这将有助于深入了解城市和郊区学校学生的目标取向和学习结果之间的差异。我们将采取措施，更好地整合教育心理学理论（尤其是认知负荷理论）和认知理论（ACT-R理论），相应地，将实验室教育心理学实验的严谨性（参见Clark & Mayer， 2003）和课堂实验的现实性（参见Bransford， Brown, & Cocking, 2000）结合起来。广泛影响拟议中的研究如果成功，将改善美国K-12数学教育。这项研究的结果将对全国的中学数学教学产生直接影响，因为研究重点关注的四门课程将通过总部位于匹兹堡的卡内基学习公司的网络进行分发。开设在城市学校行之有效的课程，对少数族裔和社会经济地位低的学生尤其有帮助，他们在这些学校的学生中占很大比例。它还应该惠及农村和郊区学校的弱势学生。

The proposed work will evaluate the use of the four Cognitive Tutor middle-level mathematics courses in a range of schools, including urban and suburban schools, comparing the effectiveness of these courses to that of courses not involving educational software. Methods will be developed with which the tutoring software can detect ineffective behaviors associated with poor learning outcomes. A series of studies will address the hypothesis that instructional software can be a vehicle for creating a more learning-oriented classroom, with better learning outcomes, if it engages students in "learning-oriented dialogues," designed to help students focus and reflect on learning-oriented behaviors. The following approaches will be evaluated:Providing interactive declarative instruction prior to and during problem-solving activities, Having students set learning goals at the beginning of tutoring sessions, andEngaging students in discussions, with other students or with an automated learning companion agent, in which they evaluate their own or each others' learning behaviors.The pre- and post-assessments used in these studies will be designed to detect shallow learning, probe the depth of students' understanding, assess whether they can quickly absorb new material (i.e., whether students have become better future learners), and evaluate students' goal orientation and motivation.Intellectual merit The proposed research will generate new knowledge about the causes and extent of students' shallow learning and ineffective learning behaviors with technology. It will also produce new knowledge about how instructional software can help students overcome those problems and be better learners. It will provide insight into the differences between students' goal orientation and learning results in urban and suburban schools. Steps will be taken to provide better integration between educational psychology theory (particularly Cognitive Load theory) and cognitive theory (ACT-R theory) and, correspondingly, between the rigor of laboratory educational psychology experiments (cf., Clark & Mayer, 2003) and the realism of classroom experiments (cf., Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000).Broad impact The proposed research, if successful, will improve American K-12 math education. Results from the proposed work will have a direct impact on middle-school math instruction across the country, since the four courses on which the research focuses will be distributed through the network of the Pittsburgh-based company Carnegie Learning, Inc. The creation of courses that work well in urban schools will be especially helpful to minority and low-SES students, who make up a large proportion of the student population of those schools. It should also benefit disadvantaged students in rural and suburban schools.