Animated pedagogical agents effects on enhancing student motivation and learning in a science inquiry learning environment

This study focuses on the design and testing of a motivational animated pedagogical agent (APA) in an inquiry learning environment on kinematics. The aim of including the APA was to enhance students’ perceptions of task relevance and self-efficacy. Given the under-representation of girls in science classrooms, special attention was given to designing an APA that would appeal to the female students. A review of the literature suggested that the best design solution would be an agent who was female, young, attractive, and “cool”. An experiment compared three conditions: agent (image and voice), voice (no image), and control (no image and no voice). The research question was whether students’ motivation and knowledge changed over time as they worked in the inquiry learning environment, and whether condition and gender affected such changes. Participants were 61 third-year students (mean age 14.7 years) from a secondary school. Gender was distributed evenly within and across conditions. A significant main effect of time on self-efficacy was found, with self-efficacy beliefs increasing significantly for both boys and girls. In addition, there was a significant interaction between time, condition, and gender for self-efficacy. About halfway during training, girls’ self-efficacy beliefs significantly increased in both experimental conditions and decreased in the control condition. For boys the opposite pattern was found. Girls also gave higher appraisals for the agent. Students in all three conditions realized significant knowledge gains, which did not differ by gender. The discussion critically considers the need for, and design of motivational scaffolding in inquiry learning environment

INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEMS, PEDAGOGICAL AGENT DESIGN, AND HISPANIC ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

According to the most recent data from the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) there were approximately 5 million English Language Learners (ELLs) in the U.S. public schools in the Fall of 2016, representing about 10% of the student population (2019). Spanish is the primary language for most ELL students, by a large margin. As a group, ELLs have faced a deeply rooted and persistent math achievement gap (U.S. Department of Education, 2015). Despite research indicating that intelligent tutors and animated pedagogical agents enhance learning, many tutors are not designed with ELLs in mind. As a result, Hispanic ELL students may experience difficulty accessing the relevant content when using a tutor. This mixed-method research investigates how a tutor can reach Hispanic ELL students, based on the social and cultural Identity framework of the Figured Worlds Theory by Holland et al., (1998). Students will socially and culturally engage with their animated pedagogical agents constructing figured worlds of learning and connection that have the power to shape the students’ senses of themselves as learners of math. This study investigates how Hispanic ELL students perceive the utility of and relate to a learning companion (LC) design. Data was examined from 76 middle school students interacting with a math tutor, MathSpring. The findings indicate that ELL students find the MathSpring LC more useful and helpful than do non-ELL students and the ELL students designed LCs that looked more like themselves than did the non-ELL students. The findings also indicate that students formed ‘She/Me Connection’ and ‘She is Like Me’ figured worlds

The Effect of Pedagogical Agent Persona on Performance, Self-Efficacy, and Attitudes in Adult Learners in an Online Environment

Pedagogical agents, virtual avatars that are often included in online training or educational modules, have been studied in a variety of disciplines to determine the extent to which their inclusion in online or multimedia learning environments may influence both cognitive and affective outcomes in learners. The present study examined the effect of a peer-like pedagogical agent providing motivational messaging in an online English language learning environment to determine if the agent will positively affect college students’ performance, self-efficacy, and attitude in comparison to a control group. All participants studied an online, self-paced English grammar module, either with (treatment version) or without (control version) a peer-like motivating pedagogical agent. The study also sought to determine if learners would perceive the agent as having a distinct persona. The study found no statistically significant difference between the treatment group and the control group on performance, self-efficacy, and attitude. However, for both the treatment group and the control group, student performance and self-efficacy were significantly improved after the online English module. In addition, the participants perceived the agent as having a distinct persona

Gendered Socialization with an Embodied Agent: Creating a Social and Affable Mathematics Learning Environment for Middle-Grade Females

This study examined whether or not embodied-agent-based learning would help middle-grade females have more positive mathematics learning experiences. The study used an explanatory mixed-methods research design. First, a classroom-based experiment was conducted with one hundred and twenty 9th-graders learning introductory algebra (53% male and 47% female; 51% Caucasian and 49% Latino). The results revealed that learner gender was a significant factor in the learners’ evaluations of their agent (η2 = .07), the learners’ task-specific attitudes (η2 = .05), and their task-specific self-efficacy (η2 = .06). In-depth interviews were then conducted with 22 students selected from the experiment participants. The interviews revealed that Latina and Caucasian females built a different type of relationship with their agent and reported more positive learning experiences as compared to Caucasian males. The females’ favorable view of the agent-based learning was largely influenced by their everyday classroom experiences, implying that students’ learning experience in real and virtual spaces was interconnected

Gender Based Music Instrument Stereotypes and Counter-stereotypes Portrayed in Children\u27s Animated Media

This study investigated the appearance of gender based music instrument stereotypes and counter-stereotypes portrayed in children\u27s cartoons. The images that were presented were organized by instrument families (i.e., brass, woodwind and percussion) and quantified to determine the frequency in which young children were exposed to specific music instrument stereotypes and counter-stereotypes. The results found that children\u27s cartoons portrayed both music instrument stereotypes and counter-stereotypes, with certain instruments being shown as more stereotypical than others. The flute was played by only female characters and the majority of all brass instruments were performed by male characters. However, percussion instruments which are typically categorized as a male dominated instrument was portrayed as a female preferred instrument in this study. The identification of the gendered messages transmitted by these images can contribute to a better understanding of the development of and the application of gender stereotypes that appear to occur in music instrument choice and preference

Investigating the impact of pedagogical agent gender matching and learner choice on learning outcomes and perceptions

abstract: The similarity attraction hypothesis posits that humans are drawn toward others who behave and appear similar to themselves. Two experiments examined this hypothesis with middle-school students learning electrical circuit analysis in a computer-based environment with an Animated Pedagogical Agent (APA). Experiment 1 was designed to determine whether matching the gender of the APA to the student has a positive impact on learning outcomes or student perceptions. One hundred ninety-seven middle-school students learned with the computer-based environment using an APA that matched their gender or one which was opposite in gender. Female students reported higher program ratings when the APA matched their gender. Male students, on the other hand, reported higher program ratings than females when the APA did not match their gender. Experiment 2 systematically tested the impact of providing learners the choice among four APAs on learning outcomes and student perceptions. Three hundred thirty-four middle-school students received either a pre-assigned random APA or were free to choose from four APA options: young male agent, older male agent, young female agent, or older female agent. Learners had higher far transfer scores when provided a choice of animated agent, but student perceptions were not impacted by having the ability to make this choice. We suggest that offering students learner control positively impacts student motivation and learning by increasing student perceptions of autonomy, responsibility for the success of the instructional materials, and global satisfaction with the design of materials.NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in COMPUTERS & EDUCATION. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in COMPUTERS & EDUCATION Volume 67, September 2013, Pages 36–50 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.02.00

FACE READERS: The Frontier of Computer Vision and Math Learning

The future of AI-assisted individualized learning includes computer vision to inform intelligent tutors and teachers about student affect, motivation and performance. Facial expression recognition is essential in recognizing subtle differences when students ask for hints or fail to solve problems. Facial features and classification labels enable intelligent tutors to predict students’ performance and recommend activities. Videos can capture students’ faces and model their effort and progress; machine learning classifiers can support intelligent tutors to provide interventions. One goal of this research is to support deep dives by teachers to identify students’ individual needs through facial expression and to provide immediate feedback. Another goal is to develop data-directed education to gauge students’ pre-existing knowledge and analyze real-time data that will engage both teachers and students in more individualized and precision teaching and learning. This paper identifies three phases in the process of recognizing and predicting student progress based on analyzing facial features: Phase I: Collecting datasets and identifying salient labels for facial features and student attention/engagement; Phase II: Building and training deep learning models of facial features; and Phase III: Predicting student problem-solving outcome. © 2023 Copyright for this paper by its authors

Improving Feedback In ASSISTments: Pedagogical Agents and Game-Like Elements

The ASSISTments system helps students learn by administering online assessments and assisting students in understanding the material. The feedback in the system can be improved by examining the mechanisms used in video games and interactive tutoring systems. With the use of game-like rewards, personalized textual feedback, and a pedagogical agent, ASSISTments can be made more engaging for students. This document outlines our iterative design process which we used to create a proposal for an improved student experience

Does the emotional design of scaffolds enhance learning and motivational outcomes in game-based learning?

Background: In recent years, the importance of emotions in learning has been increasingly recognized. Applying emotional design to induce positive emotions has been considered a means to enhance the instructional effectiveness of digital learning environments. However, only a few studies have examined the specific effects of emotional design in game-based learning.Objectives: This quasi-experimental study utilized a value-added research approach to investigate whether emotional design applied to scaffolding in a game-based learning environment improves learning and motivational outcomes more than emotionally neutral scaffolding.Methods: A total of 138 participants, mean age of 11.5 (SD = 0.73) participated in the study. A total of 68 participants played the base version of a fraction learning game (Number Trace), where scaffolding was provided with emotionally neutral mathematical notations, and 70 participants played the value-added version of the game using emotionally designed animated scaffolding agents. Pre-and post-tests were used to measure conceptual fraction knowledge and self-reported measures of situational interest and situational self-efficacy to evaluate motivational outcomes.Results and Conclusions: Our results indicate that the emotional design applied to scaffolds can improve the educational value of a game-based learning environment by enhancing players' situational interest and situational self-efficacy. However, although the intervention improved the participants' conceptual fraction knowledge, there was no significant difference between the scaffolding conditions in participants' learning outcomes.Takeaways: The results suggest that emotional design can increase the educational impact of game-based learning by promoting the development of interest, as well as improving self-efficacy.</p