Bridging the Achievement Gap with Authorable Virtual Peers

该项目将实施和评估技术支持，帮助非洲裔美国白话英语（AAVE）儿童在进行基于问题的科学探究的同时学习标准美式英语。这项技术由虚拟同伴组成，他们与孩子们合作，解决搭建桥梁的问题，同时建立一个概念，即不同的语言适用于不同的对话环境。这项工作基于这样一种认识，即小学教育是建立在一套主流口语练习和读写能力准备技能的基础上的，然而，并非所有的孩子都拥有主流文化的典型文化体验，也不是所有的孩子都说着同样的英语方言来上学。同样，虽然传统的科学课堂强调一种特定的科学话语风格，但并不是所有的孩子都掌握了这些话语风格。科学探究是当代科学课堂的核心，但它通常是根据一种特殊的文化传统来定义的，这种文化传统推崇个人观点、与老师“顶嘴”以及对他人的批评；这一传统可能不是所有学生都有，而且可能对不同人群的科学成就产生影响。本文将探索一种将文化真实性融入学习技术的独特途径：(1)对AAVE学生的同伴导向语言和非语言交际行为进行深入调查。从这项研究中获得的数据语料库将通过宾夕法尼亚大学语言数据联盟与所有感兴趣的研究人员共享；(2)两项技术创新将扩展先前在虚拟对等体上的工作，从而使当前的工作成为可能：(a) PIPER，一个用于快速原型设计和实现虚拟对等体的新平台，这样每个虚拟对等体都不需要像我们在Flash时代那样进行大量的重新实现；(b) AVP，一个虚拟同伴的创作系统，这样孩子们自己可以为虚拟同伴编程，作为一种积极参与技术、代码转换和协作科学探究的方式，然后向老师描述这种探究；(3)评估这些技术在改善儿童方面的作用？他们的教育自我效能感，以及他们在二年级标准化科学测量中的学习成果。这项工作更广泛的意义和重要性在于：(1)有可能大幅增加服务不足、处境危险的儿童获得阅读、写作和科学素养的机会，从而缩小黑人与白人之间的成就差距；(2)技术创新，使其他研究人员能够快速建立原型并实现讲不同方言和语言的虚拟同伴和教学代理，并且可以由其设计者和用户进行编程；(3)成果和研究实践传播的创新项目，包括成果的出版和展示，通过宾夕法尼亚大学语言数据联盟共享数据语料库，但也包括有大量非裔美国人的当地学校、当地教堂和社区中心，以及科学中心和儿童博物馆等非正式教育机构的参与。

This project will implement and evaluate technological supports for African-American Vernacular English(AAVE)-speaking children to learn Standard American English while engaging in problem-based scientific inquiry. The technology consists of virtual peers that collaborate with children to solve a bridge-building problem, while scaffolding the notion that different kinds of language are appropriate for different conversational contexts. The work relies on the recognition that primary school education is based on a set of mainstream oral practices and literacy-preparation skills, and yet all children do not share the same cultural experiences typical of mainstream culture, nor come to school speaking the same dialect of English. Similarly, while traditional science classrooms have emphasized a particular style of scientific discourse, not all children come to school with the mastery of these discourse styles. Scientific inquiry is at the heart of the contemporary science classroom but it is usually defined according to a specific cultural tradition that privileges individual opinion, 'talking back' to the teacher, and criticism of others; a tradition that may not be shared by all students, and which may have ramifications for science achievement among diverse populations. A unique approach for integrating cultural authenticity into learning technology will be pursued: (1) carrying out an in-depth investigation into AAVE peer-oriented language and nonverbal communicative behaviors. The corpus of data obtained from this study will be shared with all interested researchers via the Penn Linguistic Data Consortium; (2) Two technological innovations will extend prior work on virtual peers so as to make possible the current work: (a) PIPER, a new platform for rapid prototyping and implementation of virtual peers so that each of the virtual peers does not require extensive re-implementation as it did in our Flash days; (b) AVP, an authoring system for virtual peers so that children themselves can program the virtual peer as a way of actively engaging with the technology, with code-switching and with collaborative science inquiry and then description of that inquiry to a teacher; (3) evaluating the technologies with respect to their role in improving children?s use of SAE, their educational self-efficacy, and their learning gains in second grade standardized science measures.The broader significance and important of the work lies in: (1) the potential to substantially increase access to reading, writing, and science literacy for under-served, at-risk children, and to thereby decrease the Black-White achievement gap; (2) technological innovation that will allow other researchers to quickly prototype and implement virtual peers and pedagogical agents that speak different dialects and language, and that can be programmed by their designers, and by their users; (3) an innovative program of dissemination of results and research practices that involves publication and presentation of results, sharing the corpus of data via the Penn Linguistic Data Consortium, but also the involvement of local schools with high populations of African-Americans, local churches and community centers, and informal education institutions such as science centers and children's museums.