Students' Perceived Roles, Opportunities, and Challenges of a Generative AI-powered Teachable Agent: A Case of Middle School Math Class
This research addresses how generative AI can enhance teachable agents in education, though it is incremental as it builds on existing learning-by-teaching practices.
The study investigated middle school students' perceptions of a generative AI-powered teachable agent in a math class, finding that students viewed it as a learning companion, facilitator, and collaborative problem-solver, while also identifying benefits and challenges.
Ongoing advancements in Generative AI (GenAI) have boosted the potential of applying long-standing learning-by-teaching practices in the form of a teachable agent (TA). Despite the recognized roles and opportunities of TAs, less is known about how GenAI could create synergy or introduce challenges in TAs and how students perceived the application of GenAI in TAs. This study explored middle school students perceived roles, benefits, and challenges of GenAI-powered TAs in an authentic mathematics classroom. Through classroom observation, focus-group interviews, and open-ended surveys of 108 sixth-grade students, we found that students expected the GenAI-powered TA to serve as a learning companion, facilitator, and collaborative problem-solver. Students also expressed the benefits and challenges of GenAI-powered TAs. This study provides implications for the design of educational AI and AI-assisted instruction.