Teachable Agents: Computer Environments for
Supporting Instruction in Science and Mathematics
The project's objective is to combine insights from recent work in computer science, psychology and education to create and study "teachable agent" (TA) environments in mathematics and science that are motivating to students, intuitive to teachers and parents, and lead to high degrees of student learning. The hallmark of these environments is that students learn by instructing "teachable agetns" who then venture forth in simulation-based exploratory environments and attempt to solve problems that require knowledge relevant to the disciplines of mathematics or science. If the agents have been taught properly they solve the problems; otherwise they need to be educated further. The simulation-based environments are carefully designed to focus attention on important concepts in science and mathematics, and to make explict the errors that occur during problem solving. Students "scout" the problem solving requirments of various environments before attempting to teach their agents. Additional help and coaching agents are available to point students in the right direction when they make errors or produce sub-optimal solutions. The focus of the TA environmets is on learning standards-based content in science and mathematics, not on learning to program.
One key issue to be studied is how student learning is affected by opportunities to teach agents to prepare for particular challenges, and how this learning is influenced by the design of systems that vary in the degree to which they let students
