Teaching Scientific Thinking Skills: Students and Computers Coaching Each Other
01 Jan 2001-Vol. 2001, Iss: 1, pp 1671-1672
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed computer programs called PALs (Personal A_ssistants for L_earning) in which computers and students alternately coach each other.
Abstract: Our attempts to improve physics instruction have led us to analyze thought processes needed to apply scientific principles to problems—and to recognize that reliable performance requires the basic cognitive functions of deciding, implementing, and assessing. Using a reciprocal-teaching strategy to teach such thought processes explicitly, we have developed computer programs called PALs (P_ersonal A_ssistants for L_earning) in which computers and students alternately coach each other. These computer-implemented tutorials make it practically feasible to provide students with individual guidance and feedback ordinarily unavailable in most courses. We constructed PALs specifically designed to teach the application of Newton’s laws. In a comparative experimental study these computer tutorials were found to be nearly as effective as individual tutoring by expert teachers—and considerably more effective than the instruction provided in a well-taught physics class. Furthermore, almost all of the students using the PALs perceived them as very helpful to their learning. These results suggest that the proposed instructional approach could fruitfully be extended to improve instruction in various practically realistic contexts.
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TL;DR: It was found that the effect size of human tutoring was much lower than previously thought, and the effect sizes of intelligent tutoring systems were nearly as effective as human tutors.
Abstract: This article is a review of experiments comparing the effectiveness of human tutoring, computer tutoring, and no tutoring. “No tutoring” refers to instruction that teaches the same content without tutoring. The computer tutoring systems were divided by their granularity of the user interface interaction into answer-based, step-based, and substep-based tutoring systems. Most intelligent tutoring systems have step-based or substep-based granularities of interaction, whereas most other tutoring systems (often called CAI, CBT, or CAL systems) have answer-based user interfaces. It is widely believed as the granularity of tutoring decreases, the effectiveness increases. In particular, when compared to No tutoring, the effect sizes of answer-based tutoring systems, intelligent tutoring systems, and adult human tutors are believed to be d = 0.3, 1.0, and 2.0 respectively. This review did not confirm these beliefs. Instead, it found that the effect size of human tutoring was much lower: d = 0.79. Moreover, the eff...
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TL;DR: A scaffolding design framework addressing scaffolded software tools for science inquiry that synthesizes the work of prior design efforts, theoretical arguments, and empirical work in a set of guidelines that are organized around science inquiry practices and the challenges learners face in those practices.
Abstract: The notion of scaffolding learners to help them succeed in solving problems otherwise too difficult for them is an important idea that has extended into the design of scaffolded software tools for learners. However, although there is a growing body of work on scaffolded tools, scaffold design, and the impact of scaffolding, the field has not yet converged on a common theoretical framework that defines rationales and approaches to guide the design of scaffolded tools. In this article, we present a scaffolding design framework addressing scaffolded software tools for science inquiry. Developed through iterative cycles of inductive and theory-based analysis, the framework synthesizes the work of prior design efforts, theoretical arguments, and empirical work in a set of guidelines that are organized around science inquiry practices and the challenges learners face in those practices. The framework can provide a basis for developing a theory of pedagogical support and a mechanism to describe successful scaffo...
960 citations
Cites background from "Teaching Scientific Thinking Skills..."
...…Newton’s mechanics) with an explicit visual representation of qualitative reasoning processes so students can see the process they should be following (Reif & Scott, 1999) Emile Emile uses pull down “design stage” menus that describe the different steps involved in the design stages of a…...
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01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: The National Research Council's Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) report (National Research Council, 2012) captures the state-of-theart advances in our understanding of engineering and science student learning and highlights commonalities with other science-based education research programs.
Abstract: Engineering education research (EER) has been on the fast track since 2004 with an exponential rise in the number of Ph.D.s awarded and the establishment of new programs, even entire EER departments. The National Research Council’s Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) report (National Research Council, 2012) captures the state-of-the-art advances in our understanding of engineering and science student learning and highlights commonalities with other science-based education research programs. The DBER report is the consensus analysis of experts in undergraduate education research in physics, chemistry, biology, geosciences, astronomy, and engineering. The study committee, chaired by Susan Singer, also included higher education researchers, learning scientists, and cognitive psychologists. A central aspect of the DBER report is the focus on and application of research in the education, learning, and social-behavioral sciences to science and engineering curricula design and teaching methods. Froyd, Wankat, and Smith (2012) identified five major shifts in engineering education in the past 100 years: 1. A shift from hands-on and practical emphasis to engineering science and analytical emphasis 2. A shift to outcomes-based education and accreditation 3. A shift to emphasizing engineering design 4. A shift to applying education, learning, and social-behavioral sciences research 5. A shift to integrating information, computational, and communications technology in education
721 citations
Book•
09 Sep 2008
TL;DR: Building Intelligent Interactive Tutors discusses educational systems that assess a student's knowledge and are adaptive to a students' learning needs, and taps into 20 years of research on intelligent tutors to bring designers and developers a broad range of issues and methods that produce the best intelligent learning environments possible.
Abstract: Computers have transformed every facet of our culture, most dramatically communication, transportation, finance, science, and the economy. Yet their impact has not been generally felt in education due to lack of hardware, teacher training, and sophisticated software. Another reason is that current instructional software is neither truly responsive to student needs nor flexible enough to emulate teaching. The more instructional software can reason about its own teaching process, know what it is teaching, and which method to use for teaching, the greater is its impact on education.
Building Intelligent Interactive Tutors discusses educational systems that assess a student's knowledge and are adaptive to a student's learning needs. Dr. Woolf taps into 20 years of research on intelligent tutors to bring designers and developers a broad range of issues and methods that produce the best intelligent learning environments possible, whether for classroom or life-long learning. The book describes multidisciplinary approaches to using computers for teaching, reports on research, development, and real-world experiences, and discusses intelligent tutors, web-based learning systems, adaptive learning systems, intelligent agents and intelligent multimedia.
*Combines both theory and practice to offer most in-depth and up-to-date treatment of intelligent tutoring systems available
*Presents powerful drivers of virtual teaching systems, including cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and the Internet
*Features algorithmic material that enables programmers and researchers to design building components and intelligent systems
520 citations
TL;DR: In 7 experiments, the interaction hypothesis was tested under the constraint that all students covered the same content during instruction, the task domain was qualitative physics, and the instruction was in natural language as opposed to mathematical or other formal languages.
416 citations
Cites background or methods from "Teaching Scientific Thinking Skills..."
...…to use the text’s content to solve problems or answer questions during training, then interactive tutoring was usually not more effective than the comparison instruction (Chi et al., 2001; Evens & Michael, 2006; Katz et al., 2003; Reif & Scott, 1999; Rosé, Moore, et al., 2001; Rosé et al., 2003)....
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...The student entered an initial essay that answered the question and explained the an- swer....
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...Reif and Scott (1999) compared human tutors to a computer tutor....
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References
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TL;DR: In this article, two instructional studies directed at the comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities of seventh grade poor comprehenders are reported, and the training method was that of reciprocal teaching, where the tutor and students took turns leading a dialogue centered on pertinent features of the text.
Abstract: Two instructional studies directed at the comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities of seventh grade poor comprehenders are reported. The four study activities were summarizing (self-review), questioning, clarifying, and predicting. The training method was that of reciprocal teaching, where the tutor and students took turns leading a dialogue centered on pertinent features of the text. In Study 1, a comparison between the reciprocal teaching method and a second intervention modeled on typical classroom practice resulted in greater gains and maintenance over time for the reciprocal procedure. Reciprocal teaching, with an adult model guiding the student to interact with the text in more sophisticated ways, led to a significant improvement in the quality of the summaries and questions. It also led to sizable gains on criterion tests of comprehension, reliable maintenance over time, generalization to classroom comprehension tests, transfer to novel tasks that tapped the trained skills of...
5,127 citations
TL;DR: Computer tutors based on a set of pedagogical principles derived from the ACT theory of cognition have been developed for teaching students to do proofs in geometry and to write computer programs in the language LISP.
Abstract: Cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, and computer technology have advanced to the point where it is feasible to build computer systems that are as effective as intelligent human tutors Computer tutors based on a set of pedagogical principles derived from the ACT theory of cognition have been developed for teaching students to do proofs in geometry and to write computer programs in the language LISP
3,092 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared student learning under three conditions of instruction: 1. Conventional, 2. Mastery Learning, and 3. Tutoring, and concluded that the need for corrective work under tutoring is very small.
Abstract: T w o University of Chicago doctoral students in education, Anania (1982, 1983) and Burke (1984), completed dissertations in which they compared student learning under the following three conditions of instruction: 1. Conventional. Students learn the subject matter in a class with about 30 students per teacher. Tests are given periodically for marking the students. 2. Mastery Learning. Students learn the subject matter in a class with about 30 students per teacher. The instruction is the same as in the conventional class (usually with the same teacher). Formative tests (the same tests used with the conventional group) are given for feedback followed by corrective procedures and parallel formative tests to determine the extent to which the students have mastered the subject matter. 3. Tutoring. Students learn the subject matter with a good tutor for each student (or for two or three students simultaneously). This tutoring instruction is followed periodically by formative tests, feedback-corrective procedures, and parallel formative tests as in the mastery learning classes. It should be pointed out that the need for corrective work under tutoring is very small.
2,273 citations
TL;DR: Although a sizable body of knowledge is prerequisite to expert skill, that knowledge must be indexed by large numbers of patterns that, on recognition, guide the expert in a fraction of a second to relevant parts of the knowledge store.
Abstract: Although a sizable body of knowledge is prerequisite to expert skill, that knowledge must be indexed by large numbers of patterns that, on recognition, guide the expert in a fraction of a second to relevant parts of the knowledge store. The knowledge forms complex schemata that can guide a problem's interpretation and solution and that constitute a large part of what we call physical intuition.
2,038 citations
TL;DR: The 10-year history of tutor development based on the advanced computer tutoring (ACT) theory is reviewed, finding that a new system for developing and deploying tutors is being built to achieve the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards for high-school mathematics in an urban setting.
Abstract: This paper review the 10-year history of tutor development based on the ACT theory (Anderson, 1983,1993). We developed production system models in ACT ofhow students solved problems in LISP, geometry, and algebra. Computer tutors were developed around these cognitive models. Construction ofthese tutors was guided by a set of eight principles loosely based on the ACT theory. Early evaluations of these tutors usually but not always showed significant achievement gains. Best-case evaluations showed that students could achieve at least the same level of proficiency as conventional instruction in one third the time. Empirical studies showed that students were learning skills in production-rule units and that the best tutorial interaction style was one in which the tutor provides immediate feedback, consisting of short and directed error messages. The tutors appear to work better if they present themselves to students as nonhuman tools to assist learning rather than as emulations of human tutors. Students working with these tutors display transfer to other environments to the degree that they can map the tutor environment into the test environment. These experiences have coalesced into a new system for developing and deploying tutors. This system involves first selecting a problem-solving interface, then constructing a curriculum under the guidance of a domain expert, then designing a cognitive model for solving problems in that environment, then building instruction around the productions in that model, and finally deploying the tutor in the classroom. New tutors are being built in this system to achieve the NCTM standards for high school mathematics in an urban setting. (http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA312246)
1,826 citations