The Quest for Deeper Learning and Engagement in Advanced High School Courses

· GLEF and a research team from the University of Washington worked with Washington\u27s Bellevue School District to develop and assess the impact of project-based learning on upper-level courses in high school. · Research suggests that Advanced Placement (AP) courses may focus too much on accelerated content at the expense of deeper conceptual learning. · The number of students taking AP courses has grown, but along with this the number failing has increased. GLEF and the research team tested project-based learning (PBL) to counteract this trend. · Results after two years are promising. Students in the PBL-AP courses are performing as well or better than students in traditional AP courses. · Other education funders are encouraged to use an iterative design process, work with a diverse design team, and bring in partners who can contribute needed expertise and resources

Teachable Agents

Teachable Agents This paper discusses Betty’s Brain, a teachable agent in the domain of river ecosystems that combines learning by teaching with self-regulation mentoring to promote deep learning and understanding. Two studies demonstrate the effectiveness of this system. The first study focused on components that define student-teacher interactions in the learning by teaching task. The second study examined the value of adding meta-cognitive strategies that governed Betty’s behavior and self-regulation hints provided by a mentor agent. The study com-pared three versions: a system where the student was tutored by a pedagogical agent (ITS), a learning by teach-ing system (LBT) , where students taught a baseline version of Betty, and received tutoring help from the men-tor, and a learning by teaching system (SRL), where Betty was enhanced to include self-regulation strategies, and the mentor provided help on domain material plus how to become better learners and better teachers. Re-sults indicate that the addition of the self-regulated Betty and the self-regulation mentor better prepared students to learn new concepts later, even when they no longer had access to the SRL environment

Incorporating self regulated learning techniques into learning by teaching environments

This paper discusses Betty’s Brain, a teachable agent in the domain of ecosystems that combines learning by teaching with self-regulation mentoring to promote deep learning and understanding. Two studies demonstrate the effectiveness of this system. The first study focused on components that define student-teacher interactions in the learning by teaching task. The second study examined the value of adding metacognitive strategies that governed Betty’s behavior and selfregulation hints provided by a mentor agent. The study compared three versions: an intelligent tutoring version, a learning by teaching version, and a learning by teaching plus selfregulation strategies. Results indicate that the addition of the self-regulation mentor better prepared students to learn new concepts later, even when they no longer had access to the self-regulation environment

Teachable Agents: Learning by Teaching Environments for Science Domains

The crisis in science education and the need for innovative computer-based learning environments has prompted us to develop a multi-agent system, Betty’s Brain that implements the learning by teaching paradigm. The design and implementation of the system based on cognitive science and education research in constructivist, inquiry-based learning, involves an intelligent software agent, Betty, that students teach using concept map representations with a visual interface. Betty is intelligent not because she learns on her own, but because she can apply qualitative-reasoning techniques to answer questions that are directly related to what she has been taught. The results of an extensive study in a fifth grade classroom of a Nashville public school has demonstrated impressive results in terms of improved motivation and learning gains. Reflection on the results has prompted us to develop a new version of this system that focuses on formative assessment and the teaching of selfregulated strategies to improve students ’ learning, and promote better understanding and transfer.

Chapter 2 Page 39 Foundations and opportunities for an interdisciplinary science of learning

In this chapter, we argue that the learning sciences are poised for a “decade of synergy. ” We focus on several key traditions of theory and research with the potential for mutually influencing one another in ways that can transform how we think about the science of learning, as well as how future educators and scientists are trained. The three major strands of research are: (1) implicit learning and the brain, (2) informal learning, and (3) designs for formal learning and beyond. As Figure 1A illustrates, these three areas have mainly operated independently, with researchers attempting to apply their thinking and findings directly to education, and with the links between theory and well-grounded implications for practice often proving tenuous at best. ==INSERT FIGURES 1A and 1B HERE== The goal of integrating insights from these strands in order to create a transformative theory of learning is illustrated in Figure 1B. Successful efforts to understand and advance human learning require a simultaneous emphasis on informal and formal learning environments, and on the implicit ways in which people learn in whatever situations they find themselves. We explore examples of research from each of these three strands. We then suggest ways that the learning sciences might draw on these traditions for creating a more robust understanding of learning, which can inform the design ofChapter 2 An interdisciplinary science Page 40 learning environments that allow all students to succeed in the fast changing world of the twenty-first century (e.g., Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005

An introduction to geometry through anchored instruction

In this chapter we describe preliminary research on three geometry adventures that are part of the The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury problem-solving series (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt University [CGTV], 1990).https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/ed-facbooks/1027/thumbnail.jp