An agent-based model that relates investment in education to economic prosperity

Abstract. We construct groups of simulated learners that model the behaviour of humans acting in various learning environments, with the aims of studying group learning and focusing on the effects of different goal structures on individuals and groups of learners. Three sets of research objectives are investigated: (1) imitating the behaviour of human learners with a multiagent simulation by modeling characteristics outlined in pedagogical literature; (2) comparing the outcomes of simulated learners operating with different goal structures; and (3) exploring factors that influence the behaviours of simulated learners acting in groups, such as group size and composition, as well as the inclusion of team rewards. We ran a series of experiments as part of this investigation, which are outlined herein.