WhaleWatch: An Intelligent Multimedia Math Tutor

Mathematics training is essential for participation in science and engineering careers, yet many students, especially girls, dislike and avoid math, and are therefore unprepared for university science majors and graduate programs. The goal of this project is to increase students’ interest in math and their confidence in their ability to learn math through an intelligent, model-based multimedia tutor, WhaleWatch. Based on a dynamically updated student model, WhaleWatch selects problems of appropriate difficulty and provides help and instruction as needed. The results of several evaluation studies indicate that WhaleWatch had a positive impact on students’ math self concept and beliefs in the value of learning mathematics. These results also suggest beneficial tutor modifications that will be incorporated WhaleWatch’s successor, AnimalWatch. Increasing Girls’ Self-Confidence in Math It is well documented that women are under-represented in math and science career fields, a problem that is getting worse instead of better in areas such as Computer Science. This problem can be attributed in part to math avoidance among girls, who frequently drop out of mathematics courses when they become optional at the secondary level, and as a result perform less well on math achievement tests (Beal, 1994; Beller & Gafni, 1996). Because these same math courses are prerequisites for most math and science careers, many girls find themselves shut out of these fields early on. Even the most mathematically gifted girls have less math training and are less interested in science careers than their male peers (Benbow, 1992). One phenomena often cited as a turning point for girls in their math education is a drop in their self-confidence that occurs between 5th grade (11 years old) and 8th grade (14). Before fifth grade girls participate fully and perform as well as boys; after this period they lose interest. A collaborative of researchers from Psychology, Computer Science and Education have joined in a project to create an intelligent tutoring system called WhaleWatch whose goal is to raise girls’ self-confidence in their math skills during this critical period in their development. Why an intelligent computer tutor? Feedback from teachers, whether conscious or unconscious, has been shown to reinforce boys’ self-confidence while lowering girls’ (Beal, 1994; Boggiano & Barrett, 1991). The WhaleWatch tutor is designed to be encouraging of both girls and boys in its response. An inherent danger exists, however, in addressing this problem with computers – computer programs have traditionally been designed by men, and typically use competitive and excitement-oriented paradigms to engage the user. Studies have shown that girls are not as attracted to these paradigms, preferring instead activities whose content is less game-like and which feature more characterization and role playing. They also like to work together, interacting cooperatively rather than competitively. WhaleWatch has been designed with these features in mind, using the study of endangered species such as Right Whales as a context for problem-solving [1], and providing the student the opportunity to select a mentoring character as a guide through the activity. While it does not yet provide a good method for students to collaborate while working with the tutor, we are exploring ways to incorporate this. WhaleWatch is being developed with the collaboration of two local school systems, the Frontier Regional Schools in suburban/rural Western Massachusetts, and the Springfield Public Schools, and urban school setting also in Western Massachusetts. These two systems are an interesting contrast in demographics and in the kinds of computer resources available for students, which provides a wide range of conditions for testing WhaleWatch. We have tested a WhaleWatch prototype in four different trials in these systems between 1996 and the present. These formative tests have yielded encouraging data on the potential for boosting girls’ self-confidence in math, while at the same time giving us critical feedback on the effectiveness of the tutor for both girls and boys. This feedback will be incorporated into the design of an expanded tutor under development now called AnimalWatch, which will build on WhaleWatch by adding more species and a broader range of math topics. WhaleWatch: The Tutor WhaleWatch uses intelligent tutoring techniques to help students learn fractions, decimals and percentages at a 5th-6th grade level. In contrast to common drill-and-practice systems, intelligent tutoring systems modify themselves to conform to the students’ learning styles (Anderson, et al., 1995). WhaleWatch begins students with whole-number arithmetic problems in order to build a profile of what the student already knows and how fast the student can advance. Once the student demonstrates mastery of whole numbers, the tutor presents simple fractional problems that require increasingly challenging application of the cognitive subtasks involved in solving the problems (e.g. adding fractions with like denominators, adding fractions with different denominators, etc.). Interaction between the student and WhaleWatch is built around word problems that are contextualized using the endangered species theme. These include questions about Right Whales’ feeding habits, migration patterns and population, as we see in (Fig. 1). Graphics of whales are used to help set the scene for students. AnimalWatch will expand on this contextualization, adding more narrative, using various other endangered species, and increasing the connection between the problems and the students’ ability to manipulate the objects onscreen in order to solve the problems presented. [1] Of all the sciences, women are best represented in biology and especially environmental science. Figure 1: WhaleWatch Tutoring Interface. The students are asked to solve word problems about Right Whales, an endangered species. When a student has trouble solving a problem, WhaleWatch initiates a tutoring interaction such as the one shown in (Fig. 2) that provides tailored hints and guidance that helps the student work through the problem. Similar problems involving the same subskills are given until the student can successfully work the problems. The example shown in (Fig. 2) is a tutoring aid to help a student understand Equivalent Fractions. To solve the fractions problem shown here, 1/4 + 1/2, the fractions must first be converted to equivalent forms (i.e. fractions of the same denominator). The window shown overlaying the picture of the whale is an interactive calculator for finding equivalent fractions. As the student clicks on the Up and Down buttons, the fraction is multiplied or divided. At the same time, the Cuisenaire Bars shown under the fractions are divided into parts that coincide with the fraction above. For example, the bar under the 1/4 fraction in the top right is divided into four parts, one of which is colored to show the fraction of four given by the numerator one. By alternately multiplying and dividing the upper and lower fractions, the student can use this calculator to find their equivalent forms. Once they are found, 1/4 and 2/4, the student can add them and enter the answer in the boxes at the lower left in the main problem window. A correct answer elicits positive auditory feedback, while an incorrect answer elicits encouragement to try again. The next problem the student is given will be easier or harder, based on the student’s ease in solving this one. Figure 2: WhaleWatch Hinting. When the student makes a mistake solving a word problem, WhaleWatch offers hints in the right window pane that are designed to help the student understand her mistake and master the subskill in question. For WhaleWatch to be successful in its tutoring, it must maintain an accurate assessment of the student’s strengths and weaknesses in this task domain. Online self-assessment surveys conducted as students work with WhaleWatch have shown that the tutor generates a more accurate assessment of each student’s abilities than the students themselves (Beck, et al., 1997a). WhaleWatch uses Artificial Intelligence techniques for problem generation, hint selection and student modeling (Beck, et al., 1997b; Beal, et al., 1998). Multimedia is used judiciously to engage the student by animating key concepts and providing interactive manipulables based on those used by classroom teachers. WhaleWatch Testing and Results Classroom trials of the WhaleWatch prototype for purposes of formative evaluation have been conducted on four occasions, three times in Deerfield, and once in Springfield. Typically these trials involve two or three classes for as many as 60 students who use the tutor for up to five hours (in 60or 90-minute sittings over several days). Standardized tests of self-confidence (Eccles, et al., 1993) are given by paper and pencil as pretests before students start the trials, and then afterward the same tests are given again. In future trials we will introduce standardized testing for math proficiency as well. We briefly summarize results of these trials here.