ERIC Number: ED616569
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-
EISSN: N/A
Identifying Transfer of Inquiry Skills across Physical Science Simulations Using Educational Data Mining
Sao Pedro, Michael; Jiang, Yang; Paquette, Luc; Baker, Ryan S.; Gobert, Janice
Grantee Submission, Paper presented at the Proceedings of the International Conference of Learning Sciences (2014)
Students conducted inquiry using simulations within a rich learning environment for 4 science topics. By applying educational data mining to students' log data, assessment metrics were generated for two key inquiry skills, testing stated hypotheses and designing controlled experiments. Three models were then developed to analyze the transfer of these inquiry skills between science topics. Model one, Classic Bayesian Knowledge Tracing, assumes that either complete transfer of skill occurs or no transfer occurs; model two (BKT-PST), an extension of BKT, assumes partial transfer and tests that assumption; and model three, a variant of BKT-PST, assumes no transfer and tests this assumption. An analysis of models one and two suggest that transfer of these inquiry skills across topics did occur. This work makes contributions to methodological approaches for measuring fine-grained skills using log files, as well as to the literature on the domain-specificity vs. domain-generality of inquiry skills. [This paper was published in: "Proceedings of the International Conference of Learning Sciences," 2014.]
Descriptors: Simulation, Transfer of Training, Bayesian Statistics, Inquiry, Comparative Analysis, Science Instruction, Models, Learning Processes, Grade 8, Middle School Students, Learning Activities, Predictive Validity, Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Learning Analytics, Physics, Energy, Scientific Concepts, Goodness of Fit, Suburban Schools
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: Elementary Education; Grade 8; Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL); National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Graduate Education (DGE); Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Massachusetts
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: 0733286; 1008649; 0742503; R305A090170; R305A120778