Intervention study for assessment of the differential influence of adaptive feedback on the academic success of first-year students in general chemistry

一年级的化学学生开始大学通常有不同的先验知识，尤其是因为在高中结束时开放的课程水平的选择。这往往导致这样一个事实，即学生很少的先验知识不能赶上他们的同学与更高的知识，因此没有达到最低要求的期末考试。因此，该项目的目的是促进学生个人，特别是学生的基本知识，使他们能够成功地学习化学。在研究小组的框架模型中，本研究关注了学业成功的重要预测因素：特定学科的先验知识。这一进步是在一项研究中与实验设计，以调查两个反馈条件的适用性。根据文献中的研究结果，目前还不清楚哪种反馈条件对于先验知识很少或相当高的学习者是最有效的。根据学生的先验知识，自适应BRT反馈算法相比，非自适应KR-KCR反馈算法对学生的内容知识和考试成绩的影响，在第一学期末的普通化学。学生的概念内容知识和普通化学期末考试成绩被理解为学生在第一学期学业成功的中心程度。杜伊斯堡-埃森大学的一年级化学学生将通过互动学习任务进行学习，这些任务与本项目中的两种反馈算法之一相结合，并通过基于计算机的学习环境提供。KR-KCR反馈算法提供关于解决方案的正确性的信息，并在三次不成功的尝试后给出正确的答案，而BRT反馈算法通过提供关于纠错的战略有用信息来帮助学生识别和纠正错误，而不直接给出正确的答案。为了比较两种反馈条件的效果，学生被随机分配到两个练习组的基础上，他们在高中化学课程水平的选择。第一组的学生将使用BRT反馈学习任务，而第二组的学生将使用KR-KCR反馈学习任务。在干预前后对学生的知识进行测量，以考察两种反馈条件对学生普通化学成绩的影响。由于反馈的效率决定性地取决于学生的个人特征和他们如何处理反馈信息，各种认知和动机因素被认为是控制变量。

First-year chemistry students start college usually with different prior knowledge not least because of the open course-level choices at the end of upper secondary school. This often leads to the fact that students with little prior knowledge cannot catch up with their fellow students with higher knowledge and consequently do not achieve the minimum requirements for final examinations. The aim of the project is therefore to promote students individually – especially students with little prior knowledge – to enable them to study chemistry successfully. In the framework model of the research group the study takes up at the important predictor for academic success: the subject-specific prior knowledge. The advancement is made in a study with experimental design to investigate the suitability of the two feedback conditions. According to findings in literature it is still unclear which feedback condition is the most efficient for learners with little or rather high prior knowledge. Depending on students’ prior knowledge, the influence of an adaptive BRT-feedback algorithm compared to a non-adaptive KR-KCR-feedback algorithm on students’ content knowledge and examination results in general chemistry at the end of the first semester are investigated. Students’ conceptual content knowledge and final examination results in general chemistry are understood as central degree of students’ academic success in first semester. First-year chemistry students of the University of Duisburg-Essen will learn with interactive learning tasks, which are coupled each with one of the two feedback algorithms in this project and provided via a computer-based learning environment. The KR-KCR feedback algorithm provides information about the correctness of the solution and presents the correct answer after three unsuccessful attempts, whereas BRT-feedback algorithm helps students to identify and correct errors by providing strategically useful information on error correction without directly presenting the correct answer. To compare the effects of the two feedback conditions, the students are randomly assigned to one of two exercise groups on basis of their course-level choice in chemistry at upper secondary school. Students in group one will work with the BRT-feedback learning tasks, whereas students in group two will learn with the KR-KCR-feedback learning tasks. Before and after the intervention students’ knowledge is measured in order to investigate the influence of the two feedback conditions on students’ achievements in general chemistry. Because efficiency of feedback is decisively dependent on individual characteristics of the students and how they process feedback information, various cognitive and motivational factors are considered as control variables.