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

拟议的工作将评估使用的四个认知导师中级数学课程在一系列的学校，包括城市和郊区的学校，比较这些课程的有效性，不涉及教育软件的课程。将开发的方法与辅导软件可以检测与学习效果差的无效行为。一系列的研究将解决这一假设，即教学软件可以成为一种工具，创造一个更加以学习为导向的课堂，更好的学习成果，如果它从事学生在“以学习为导向的对话，”旨在帮助学生专注于和反思以学习为导向的行为。以下方法将被评估：在问题解决活动之前和期间提供交互式陈述式指导，让学生在辅导课程开始时设定学习目标，让学生与其他学生或自动学习伴侣代理进行讨论，在讨论中他们评估自己或彼此的学习行为。这些研究中使用的前评估和后评估将被设计用于检测浅层学习，探索学生理解的深度，评估他们是否能快速吸收新材料（即，学生是否已经成为更好的未来学习者），并评估学生的目标取向和动机。智力价值拟议的研究将产生新的知识的原因和程度的学生的浅学习和无效的学习行为与技术。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。它将提供洞察学生的目标取向和学习结果之间的差异，在城市和郊区的学校。将采取措施，更好地整合教育心理学理论（特别是认知负荷理论）和认知理论（ACT-R理论），并相应地整合实验室教育心理学实验的严格性（参见，Clark Mayer，2003）和课堂实验的现实主义（参见，Bransford，Brown，Cocking，2000）。广泛的影响拟议的研究，如果成功，将改善美国K-12数学教育。拟议工作的结果将对全国各地的中学数学教学产生直接影响，因为研究重点的四门课程将通过总部位于爱丁堡的卡内基学习公司的网络分发。在城市学校开设行之有效的课程，对占这些学校学生人数很大比例的少数民族和社会经济地位低的学生特别有帮助。它还应该使农村和郊区学校的弱势学生受益。

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.