Concepção e desenvolvimento do agente tutor e modelo de aluno no ambiente inteligente de aprendizagem PAT2MATH

Abstract

In Brazil the students face difficulties in learning algebra, considered an exponent of issues related to mathematics. Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) offer the alternative of an individualized learning for students, setting in which PAT2Math contributes because it is an ITS on web for learning algebra which considers the abilities of each individual student in their education. The usage of this information about individual issues, as decision variables of different pedagogical strategies for teaching making individual learning, poses a challenge to a Tutor Module in an ITS. In the area of mathematics, the various ways of solving difficult problems make hard the inference of how sure a student is in an exercise and how much it dominates of a given content information to be inferred and stored by the Student Model of an ITS. The work proposed in this document comes to be the definition of the Student Model Agent and Tutor Agent of the system, considering the current challenge of how is the computational structure of the teaching process in an environment of that category. Due to the multi-agent architecture of the STI PAT2Math, these two modules will also be implemented as agents. The monitoring of students' characteristics, performed through their respective Student Model, are the observed variables by the Tutor Agent to teach them individually. The Tutor Agent, to achieve this individual feature, use teaching plans, adapting them in case of student error and applies a pedagogical strategy, resulting in content and exercises proposed considering the abilities of the student in question. Tutor and Student modules were designed in cognitive learning theories such as the Meaningful Learning of Ausubel, Bloom's Taxonomy, and the Theory of Instructional Design Merrill. A qualitative evaluation was performed with a group of four researchers, teachers of mathematics, with the aim of evaluating the usability and potential application in real classrooms about the built prototype. Among the data collected it can be mentioned the strong positive trend in the responses of the questionnaire, which aimed to discover the opinions of those reviewers on the quality of the prototype. Through the comments made by reviewers it can be said that the tutorial inside the prototype is well organized and of easy exploration for the student, regardless of its maturation in the mathematics, with the possibility of larger experiments as the teacher himself inserts and modifies the contents in the domain base. It was considered of interesting use the tool, because it provides a different way of learning. The evaluators considered very relevant the diversity of options in search of ways to suit all types of learning, turning in a beneficial way for the math student. It was also noted that additional to this prototype it would be the teacher observing actions of the students to get a little more information on their respective performance and improve the project as a whole.