Thinking Aloud with a Tutoring Robot to Enhance Learning

Thinking aloud, while requiring extra mental effort, is a metacognitive technique that helps students navigate through complex problem-solving tasks. Social robots, bearing embodied immediacy that fosters engaging and compliant interactions, are a unique platform to deliver problem-solving support s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:2018 13th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) pp. 59 - 68
Main Authors: Ramachandran, Aditi, Huang, Chien-Ming, Gartland, Edward, Scassellati, Brian
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Published: New York, NY, USA ACM 26.02.2018
Series:ACM Conferences
Subjects:
Applied computing > Education > Interactive learning environments
Atmospheric measurements
Child-robot Interaction
Education
Gain measurement
Human-centered computing > Human computer interaction (HCI) > HCI design and evaluation methods > User studies
Human-robot interaction
Navigation
Particle measurements
Problem-solving
Task analysis
Tutoring
child-robot interaction
tutoring
education
ISBN:9781450349536, 1450349536
ISSN:2167-2148
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Thinking aloud, while requiring extra mental effort, is a metacognitive technique that helps students navigate through complex problem-solving tasks. Social robots, bearing embodied immediacy that fosters engaging and compliant interactions, are a unique platform to deliver problem-solving support such as thinking aloud to young learners. In this work, we explore the effects of a robot platform and the think-aloud strategy on learning outcomes in the context of a one-on-one tutoring interaction. Results from a 2x2 between-subjects study (n=52) indicate that both the robot platform and use of the think-aloud strategy promoted learning gains for children. In particular, the robot platform effectively enhanced immediate learning gains, measured right after the tutoring session, while the think-aloud strategy improved persistent gains as measured approximately one week after the interaction. Moreover, our results show that a social robot strengthened students» engagement and compliance with the think-aloud support while they performed cognitively demanding tasks. Our work indicates that robots can support metacognitive strategy use to effectively enhance learning and contributes to the growing body of research demonstrating the value of social robots in novel educational settings.
ISBN:9781450349536
1450349536
ISSN:2167-2148
DOI:10.1145/3171221.3171250