EXP: Fostering Self-Correcting Reasoning with Reflection Systems

这项研究项目正在探索如何支持对邪恶问题的推理。这些都是社会重大问题，其特点是认识不完整或相互矛盾，对问题有大量不同的意见，经济负担很大，与其他问题密切相关。贫困就是这种问题的一个例子。贫穷与教育、营养与贫困、经济与营养等联系在一起。对这些问题进行推理并提出部分解决方案是一项重要的学习活动。处理邪恶问题的一个方面是通过使用反思来指导论证。这个项目探索了用支持反思过程的软件来支持本科生的反思，以及旨在提高论点质量的软件。该软件建立在论点的可视化和称为VEE图的结构化格式的基础上，VEE图通过学习、问题合成以及最后的分析和反思的过程来构建良好的论点。更具体地说，研究人员分析了专家如何处理邪恶的问题，他们如何进行反思，以及他们如何评估和提高他们的论点的质量。这些专家实验的结果将被纳入计算机支持的论点可视化(CSAV)工具中。本项目中探讨的方法有两种类型：使用模板来触发反射，以及使用脚本来提供对问题进行推理的结构。作为起点，研究人员建立了第一种方法的论证VEE图和由PI开发的AGORA软件，作为基于脚本的方法的一种方法。实验结果将有助于理解如何通过评估反思工具和交互脚本的特定特征来培养反思性学习和自我纠正推理。研究结果使已知的自我改进障碍，如学生对知识的性质和确定性的隐含假设和偏见，能够通过教育干预得到解决。

This research project is exploring how to support reasoning about wicked problems. These are societal important problems that are characterized by incomplete or contradictory knowledge, have a large body of differing opinion on the problem, have a large economic burden, and are intimately interconnected with other problems. An example of such a problem is poverty. Poverty is linked with education, nutrition to poverty, the economy with nutrition, etc. Reasoning about such problems and coming up with partial solutions is an important learning activity. One aspect of approaching wicked problems is through the use of reflection to guide argumentation. This project explores supporting reflection in undergraduate students with software that supports the reflection process and software that aims to improve the quality of arguments. This software builds upon both visualizations of arguments and a structured format, known as the Vee diagram, that structures good argumentation through a process of studying, questions synthesis, and finally analysis and reflection. More specifically, the researchers analyze how experts approach wicked problems, how they engage in reflection, and how they assess and improve the quality of their arguments. Results of these experiments with experts will be incorporated into Computer Supported Argument Visualization (CSAV) tools. The approaches explored in this project are of two types: the use of templates to trigger reflection and the use of scripts to provide a structure to reason about an issue. As a starting point, the researchers build upon the argumentation Vee diagram for the first approach and the AGORA software, which has been developed by the PI, as an approach for a script-based approach. Results of the experiments will contribute to an understanding of how reflective learning and self-correcting reasoning can be fostered by assessing specific features of reflection tools and interactions scripts. Research results enable known obstacles to self-improvement, such as students' implicit assumptions about the nature and certainty of knowledge and bias, to be addressed through educational interventions.