Kenneth Koedinger, professor of Human Computer Interaction and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and director of the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center, will present “The Science of Learning goes to School” at Minnesota Interdisciplinary Training and Educational Research (MITER) program’s annual lecture on Friday, February 11, 2011 at 4:30 pm in the Johnson Great Room, MacNamara Alumni Center. A reception will follow the lecture.
Abstract: Collaborations of cognitive psychologists, artificial intelligence researchers, and mathematics educators led to the creation of the Cognitive Tutor math courses in the early 1990s. Today these courses are providing over 500,000 math students per year with computer-based personalized tutoring. A number of large-scale field trials have provided evidence on the benefits of the Cognitive Tutor courses for enhancing student achievement. The underlying research goal has been to understand student learning, and to link general learning principles from cognitive research to specific curricular content so as to provide a diversity of students with more effective, efficient, and enjoyable learning experiences. Thus, the “goes to school” element in my title refers not only to scaling-up of the science of learning for improving educational practice, but also to the idea that we can improve the science by bringing it to school. To this end, starting in 2004, the National Science Foundation provided ten years of funding for the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC). In this talk, I will describe the PSLC’s use of a research method called “in vivo experimentation” as a stepping stone between laboratory experiments and randomized field trials. The PSLC also supports cumulative development of theories of domain-general learning and domain-specific knowledge.
Please register to attend by e-mailing or calling Peggy Ferdinand: mlif@umn.edu, or 612-626-8269.
Professor Koedinger will also be presenting a colloquium entitled “Psychometrics and Technology-Enhanced Education Research” on Friday, February 11, 9:00 a.m., in 325 Education Sciences Building.