Teaching about Dynamic Processes A Teachable Agents Approach

This paper discusses the extensions that we have made to Betty's Brain teachable agent system to help students learn about dynamic processes in a river ecosystem. Students first learn about dynamic behavior in a simulation environment, and then teach Betty by introducing cycles into the concept map representation. Betty's qualitative reasoning mechanisms have been extended so that she can reason about cycles and determine how entities change over time. Preliminary experiments were conducted to study and analyze the usefulness of the simulation. Analysis of the students' protocols was very revealing, and the lessons learnt have led to redesigned simulation interfaces. A new study with the system will be conducted in a fifth grade science classroom in May, 2005.

[1]  Peter Struss,et al.  Current Topics in Qualitative Reasoning , 2004, AI Mag..

[2]  Gautam Biswas,et al.  LEARNING BY TEACHING: A NEW AGENT PARADIGM FOR EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE , 2005, Appl. Artif. Intell..

[3]  Kenneth D. Forbus,et al.  Qualitative Modeling in Education , 2004, AI Mag..

[4]  Ann L. Brown,et al.  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. , 1999 .

[5]  Benjamin Kuipers,et al.  Qualitative Simulation , 1986, Artificial Intelligence.

[6]  Alexander Repenning,et al.  Agent-based end-user development , 2004, Commun. ACM.

[7]  Ann L. Brown,et al.  Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension-Fostering and Comprehension-Monitoring Activities , 1984 .

[8]  Benjamin J. Kaipers,et al.  Qualitative Simulation , 1989, Artif. Intell..

[9]  Gautam Biswas,et al.  Developing Learning by Teaching Environments That Support Self-Regulated Learning , 2004, Intelligent Tutoring Systems.

[10]  N. Webb.  Predicting learning from student interaction: Defining the interaction variables , 1983 .

[11]  Gautam Biswas,et al.  Incorporating Self Regulated Learning Techniques into Learning by Teaching Environments , 2004 .

[12]  Yaacov Schul,et al.  On the Cognitive Benefits of Teaching , 1980 .

[13]  J. Bransford.  How people learn , 2000 .

[14]  Gautam Biswas,et al.  Teachable Agents: Learning by Teaching Environments for Science Domains , 2003, IAAI.

[15]  Daniel L. Schwartz,et al.  Inventing to Prepare for Future Learning: The Hidden Efficiency of Encouraging Original Student Production in Statistics Instruction , 2004 .