Gaining Confidence in Mathematics: Instructional Technology For Girls
Gaining Confidence in Mathematics: Instructional Technology For Girls
Gaining Confidence in Mathematics: Instructional Technology For Girls
March 2000.
Carole R. Beal
Department of Psychology
Cbeal @psych.umass.edu
Beverly P. Woolf, Joseph Beck, Ivon Arroyo, Klaus Schultz, David M. Hart
Center for Computer-Based Instructional Technology
Computer Science Department
{bev, beck, ivon, schultz, dhart}@cs.umass.edu
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
Abstract: AnimalWatch is a mathematics tutor with enhanced adaptive feedback precisely tailored
to girls’ instructional needs. Three evaluation studies with fifth grade students support our
hypothesis that adaptive feedback is beneficial to girls’ math confidence. We have also had high
levels of teacher participation including classroom activities, after-school presentations and
summer workshops. This paper describes features of the tutor, evaluation studies, work with
classroom teachers and dissemination activities.
5.3
5.2
4.9
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Pretest Posttest
were also highly structured and walked the student through the solution process in incremental steps (see examples in
Figure 4). We hypothesized these would be more helpful to girls.
Data on math problem solving were automatically collected. Hint effectiveness was assessed by comparing the
number of errors made on subsequent problems of the same type, the idea being that if a particular hint is helpful
then the student should be able to to solve a similar problem with significantly fewer errors.
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Hint effectiveness
GENDER
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Lo w Hi gh
Analyses of the AnimalWatch survey revealed that students generally rated their experience highly: Means
range from 3.78 to 4.85 (on a 5 point scale) for questions such as “Would you like to use AnimalWatch again?,”
“When you made errors, did AnimalWatch give you enough help?,” “Do you think the computer is a good way to
learn math?.” On the question, “Did you like working with AnimalWatch?,” girls gave significantly higher ratings
than boys (mean 4.50 for girls, 4.05 for boys).
4. Dissemination
Classroom teachers and teachers-in-training were involved in the design of AnimalWatch and in the evaluation
studies. Workshops for the participating fifth grade teachers focused on gender equity in math and science, as did
guest lectures to psychology, education and teacher training programs and three-hour workshops for student teachers.
AnimalWatch received high marks from the teachers, who rated it highly on such issues as appropriateness of
math topics, sufficiency of help, ease of use, and fit to their curriculum. They also felt that working with
AnimalWatch would help prepare girls for high stakes achievement tests such as the PSAT or the MCAS (a new
state assessment test suite in Massachusetts), on which girls typically perform less well in math than boys. All the
participating teachers volunteered their classrooms as sites for future evaluation studies.
Teachers responded very positively to AnimalWatch’s ease of use and resilience (i.e., there is little that a
student can do to “mess up” the computer and thus require teacher intervention). They were very pleased that it will
run on any platform.
6. References
Arroyo, I, Beck, J., Schultz, K., & Woolf, B. P. (1999). Piagetian psychology in intelligent tutoring systems. Proceedings of the
Ninth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, pp. 600-609.
Beal, C. R., Woolf, B. P., Beck, J., & Arroyo, I. (1999). WhaleWatch: Promoting gender equity in mathematics instruction
through educational technology. Poster presentation at the European Cognitive Science Society annual meeting, Sienna
Italy.
Beck, J., Stern, M., & Woolf, B. (1997). Cooperative student models. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on
Artificial Intelligence in Education, pp. 127-134.
Beck, J., Arroyo, I., Woolf, B. P., & Beal, C. R. (1999). Affecting self-confidence with an ITS. Proceedings of the Ninth
International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, 611-613, Paris, France.
Beller, M., & Gafni, N. (1996). The 1991 International Assessment of Educational Progress in Mathematics and Sciences: The
Gender Differnces Perspective. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 365-377.
Berry, J., Wing, R. E., Crawley, A., & Beal, C. R. (2000, April). Collaborative learning with AnimalWatch: The impact of
partner gender on girls’ math achievement and attitudes. Submitted for presentation at the annual meeting of the American
Educational Research Association, New Orleans LA.
Hart, D. M., Arroyo, I., Beck, J., Woolf, B. P., & Beal, C. R. (1999). WhaleWatch: An intelligent multimedia math tutor.
Proceedings of the International Conference on Mathematics/Science Education and Technology (M/SET’99), San
Antonio, TX. March 1999, pp. 565-570.
Stern, M., Beck, J., & Woolf, B. P. (1999). Naive Bayes classifiers for user modeling. Poster presented at the Seventh
International Conference on User Modeling, Banff Canada.
Acknowledgments
This work has been funded from two National Science Foundation awards from the Experimental Programs for
Women and Girls program HRD 9714757. It has also received support from the University of Massachusetts and
from the Frontier Regional School System and the Springfield School System. We acknowledge the extensive
efforts of system programmer, David Marshall.