Refuting misconceptions: Computer tutors for fraction arithmetic

Diagnosing misconceptions: Revealing changing decimal fraction knowledge

Conceptual change is a gradual process that occurs as students integrate new information into their existing conceptions. Throughout this process, assessing learning requires measures to diagnose misconceptions and understand how knowledge is changing. We developed three measures of misconceptions to assess students' knowledge early in instruction on decimals that measured the: 1) prevalence of...

Computer Arithmetic

Conceptual Knowledge of Fraction Arithmetic

Understanding an arithmetic operation implies, at minimum, knowing the direction of effects that the operation produces. However, many children and adults, even those who execute arithmetic procedures correctly, may lack this knowledge on some operations and types of numbers. To test this hypothesis, we presented pre-service teachers (Study 1), middle school students (Study 2), and math and sci...

Collaborative Lecturing by Human and Computer Tutors

We implemented and evaluated a collaborative lecture module in an ITS that models the pedagogical and motivational tactics of expert human tutors. Inspired by the lecture delivery styles of the expert tutors, the collaborative lectures of the ITS were conversational and interactive, instead of a polished one-way information delivery from tutor to student. We hypothesized that the enhanced inter...

Overcoming Misconceptions About Computer Science With Multimedia

Preconceived ideas about computer science may discourage students, especially women and minorities, from pursuing study in the field. Many of these common, but negative stereotypes are misconceptions. We address these misconceptions in multimedia courseware developed for a CS0 or CS1 course covering a breadth of topics in computer science. Experimental results show that the multimedia overcomes...