TED & ISP TUTORS

Development of the TED Tutor. Our research and development process iterated through a series of increasingly computerized and adaptive modules. Beginning with human-delivered instruction with physical materials, we incrementally developed what is now a fully-functioning adaptive computer tutor that consists of a pretest, training requiring students to design and evaluate experiments, and a post-test that assesses students' ability to design and evaluate experiments in various domains. Recent design-implement-assess-revise cycles indicated that learning outcomes of both middle- and low-SES students using TED are equal to or greater than outcomes of students given the same one-to-one instruction by a human tutor using physical materials. Furthermore, in a recent study with 8th-graders in a local magnet school, training in TED was significantly more efficient and effective at supporting students' ability to design and evaluate experiments compared to a hands-on lesson from the district's curricular materials.

We have further increased the intelligence of TED by integrating menu-based responses with a Bayesian engine, which allows TED to assign students to particular initial instruction pathways based on their incoming knowledge levels as well as provide additional instruction when necessary.

How does the TED Tutor and ISP Tutor's Instruction align with the next generation & Pennsylvania's science standards?

Instruction in both tutors aligns with NGSS’s Science and Engineering Practices of Planning & Carrying Out Investigations:

• Plan an investigation individually and collaboratively, and in the design: identify independent and dependent variables and controls, what tools are needed to do the gathering, how measurements will be recorded, and how many data are needed to support a claim; Conduct an investigation and/or evaluate and/or revise the experimental design to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence that meet the goals of the investigation.

For elementary grades 3-5:

• Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved (NGSS: 3-5-ETS1-3).

• Identify the variables in a simple investigation (PDESAS: S3.A.2.1.3).

For middle school grades, 6-8:

• Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and mass of the object (NGSS: MS-PS2-2).

• Design a controlled experiment by specifying how the independent variables will be manipulated, how the dependent variable will be measured and which variables will be held constant (PDESAS: S8.A.2.1.3).