Empirical Research: Emerging Research: Using Automated Detectors to Examine the Relationships Between Learner Attributes and Behaviors During Inquiry in Science Microworlds

该研究将通过一系列计算机科学项目来检验学生属性与行为之间的关系。本项目旨在促进对中学生使用教育软件的行为如何影响科学学习的理解。研究人员将测量学生的目标导向差、自我效能低、毅力低等属性与学习成果的关系。他们将调查这些属性是如何导致消极行为的，如游戏系统而不是学习材料，脱离任务的行为，随意的查询和帮助回避。该研究将使用学生属性的调查测量，在使用教育软件时学生行为的自动检测器，以及学生学习的测量来开发不同的学生行为如何导致改进的学习结果的模型。选择模型是为了检验哪些行为调解了学生属性和学习之间的关系，以及这些行为如何调解学生属性和学习之间的关系。研究人员将使用统计模型，如路径分析，来检验他们的假设。该研究将在500名不同种族和经济背景的中学生中进行，这些学生是这些学校科学评估项目的一部分。研究结果旨在为创建新的教育软件和课堂实践提供基础，以实时识别低毅力、低自我效能和非生产性目标导向的学生。通过对不同人群的研究，以及在许多美国学生落后的领域，该项目有可能使目前被剥夺科学学习权利的学习者受益。

The research study will examine the relationship between student attributes and behavior while working through a series of science projects on computer. This project seeks to advance understanding of how middle school student behaviors within using educational software influence science learning. The investigators will measure how student attributes such as poor goal orientation, low self-efficacy, and low perseverance are associated with learning outcomes. They will investigate how these attributes lead to negative behaviors such as gaming the system rather than learning the material, off-task behavior, haphazard inquiry, and help avoidance. The study will use survey measures of student attributes, automated detectors of student behavior during use of educational software, and measures of student learning to develop models of how different student behaviors lead to improved learning outcomes. The models are chosen to test which behaviors mediate the relationships between student attributes and learning and how the behaviors do so. The researchers will use statistical models, such as path analysis, to test their hypotheses. The study will be conducted in 500 ethnically and economically diverse middle school students who are part of a science assessment project in those schools. The findings are intended to serve as a basis for creating new educational software and classroom practices that identify in real-time students with low grit, low self-efficacy, and non-productive goal orientation. Through research with diverse populations, and in a domain where many American students are falling behind, the project has the potential to benefit learners currently disenfranchised from science learning.