Internet Problem-Solving Coaches for Physics Students

在各种情况下解决问题的能力是教育的主要目标。然而，通过在练习过程中向学生提供个性化的指导和反馈来为他们提供解决问题的有效指导是一项困难且可能昂贵的任务。让学生变得更加专家需要时间；因此，任何教学工具都必须在足够的时间范围内运行并融入现有的教学中。此外，不存在标准化、易于使用的方法来评估学生解决问题的能力，这阻碍了改进问题解决教学的进展。该项目旨在通过创建一组网络交付的计算机教练来帮助克服这些困难，为学生提供有效的指导，同时他们练习解决涵盖为期一年的物理入门课程内容的问题。为了使这些教练能够对教师有用，对软件进行了配置，以便教师可以使用图形界面轻松更改问题、反馈和解决方案的结构，以更紧密地适应他们的教学重点。在这个项目中，使用先前项目中开发的标准以及概念和态度变化的标准测试来分析学生问题的解决。计算机教练的结构基于认知科学和物理教育的研究。它们的设计目的是：1）高度互动，（2）明确有效解决问题所需的思维过程，（3）让学生练习有效解决问题所需的基本认知功能，（4）基于精心的教学设计为学生提供个性化辅导，（5）适应学生为解决问题可能选择的多种解决方案路径，（6）个别物理教师可以根据自己的品味和当地条件进行调整。之前的一个项目表明，为机械师培养具有此类属性的教练是可能的。该项目 (1) 为这些教练开发了一个新的底层软件结构，使它们更容易修改，(2) 使用新的软件结构来构建涵盖全年物理入门课程的电学和磁学教练，以及 (3) 衡量学生在全年中以更加专家般的方式解决问题的进展。智力优点：解决问题是物理入门课程最重要的目标和工具之一。让学生更加像专家一样解决问题可以使这些课程的概念内容更容易理解和有用。由于教练提供了可重复的、细粒度的问题解决指导，因此拟议的工作有助于建立有关如何设计有效指导（基于计算机或非计算机）以帮助学生提高解决问题技能的知识库。这是朝着实现利用网络通过提供按需辅导来补充人类指导的承诺迈出的一步。教练们还提供了一个将不同领域的研究应用到生产实用工具的模型，以改善学生在当前教育体系中的学习。更广泛的影响：由于解决问题是科学和工程的核心，因此教练和标题不仅有可能被广泛使用，而且还可以在其他 STEM 领域和跨多个学科中催生类似的努力。该项目展示了如何利用技术为学生提供更具互动性和个性化的教学以及将外部有效教学与课堂教学相结合的机会来改善教育。这对于难以获得标准教学的学生（例如远程教育学生）尤其重要。该项目中制定的评估策略还有助于评估复杂且有意义的能力（例如在真实的课堂环境中解决问题的能力）的知识库。最后，由于良好的解决问题的技能，尤其是系统地解决新问题的逻辑专家式框架，对于我们现代快速变化的社会中的所有公民都很重要，因此该项目有助于公民做好准备面对未来的新挑战。

The ability to solve problems in a variety of contexts is a major goal of education. However, providing students with effective instruction in problem solving by making individualized guidance and feedback available to them during practice is a difficult and potentially expensive task. Moving students to be more expert-like takes time; thus any instructional tool must operate over an adequate time span and integrated into existing instruction. Furthermore, no standardized, easy-to-use method for assessing students' problem-solving skills exists, hindering progress in improving problem-solving instruction. This project aims to help overcome these difficulties by creating a set of web-delivered computer coaches to provide students with effective coaching while they practice solving problems that span the content of a yearlong introductory physics course. To make it possible for these coaches to be useful to instructors, the software is configured so that instructors can easily change the problems, the feedback, and the structure of the solution to more closely fit their instructional emphasis using a graphical interface. In this project, student problem solving is being analyzed using a rubric developed in a previous project together with standard tests of conceptual and attitudinal change. The structure of the computer coaches is based on research from cognitive science and physics education. They are designed to 1) be highly interactive, (2) make explicit the thought processes necessary for effective problem solving, (3) give students practice in the basic cognitive functions necessary for effective problem solving, (4) provide students with individualized coaching based on careful instructional design, (5) accommodate the multiple solution paths students might choose for solving a problem, and (6) be adaptable by individual physics instructors to their own tastes and local conditions. A previous project has shown that it is possible to develop coaches with such attributes for mechanics. This project (1) develops a new underlying software structure for those coaches to make them easier to modify, (2) uses the new software structure to build coaches for electricity and magnetism to span the full year of introductory physics, and (3) measures student progress toward more expert-like problem solving over a full year.Intellectual merit: Problem solving is one of the most important goals and tools of an introductory physics course. Moving students toward more expert-like problem solving can make the conceptual content of these courses more intelligible and useful. Because of the reproducible, fine-grained problem-solving instruction delivered by the coaches, the proposed work contributes to the knowledge base on how to design effective instruction (computer based or not) to help students improve their problem-solving skills. It is a step toward achieving the promise of using the web to supplement human instruction by providing on-demand coaching. The coaches also provide a model of the application of research from diverse fields to the production of a practical tool to improve student learning with the current educational system. Broader impacts: Because problem solving is central to science and engineering, the coaches and the rubric have the potential not only to become widely used, but also to spawn similar efforts in other STEM fields, and across multiple disciplines. This project demonstrates how technology can be used to improve education by providing students with a more interactive and individualized instruction and opportunities to integrate effective instruction outside with that occurring in the classroom. This can be especially important to students for whom standard instruction is difficult to obtain such as distance-education students. The assessment strategy developed in this project also contributes to the knowledge base of assessing complex and meaningful abilities such as problem solving in the authentic setting of the classroom. Finally, because good problem-solving skills, especially a logical expert-like framework for attacking novel problems in a systematic way, are important to all citizens in our modern, rapidly-changing society, this project contributes to the preparation of the citizenry to face the new challenges of the future.