Beyond prior knowledge: The predictive role of knowledge-building in Tutor Learning
This addresses the challenge of enhancing tutor learning in educational settings, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing research about teachable agents and knowledge types.
The study tackled the problem of students defaulting to knowledge-telling instead of knowledge-building in learning-by-teaching environments, finding that knowledge-building mediates the bidirectional relationship between procedural and conceptual learning, with higher post-test scores for students who engaged in it regardless of prior knowledge.
When adopting the role of a teacher in learning-by-teaching environments, students often struggle to engage in knowledge-building activities, such as providing explanations and addressing misconceptions. Instead, they frequently default to knowledge-telling behaviors, where they simply dictate what they already know or what to do without deeper reflection, thereby limiting learning. Teachable agents, particularly those capable of posing persistent follow-up questions, have been shown to encourage students (tutors) to shift from knowledge-telling to knowledge-building and enhance tutor learning. Tutor learning encompasses two interrelated types of knowledge: conceptual and procedural knowledge. Research has established a bidirectional relationship between these knowledge types, where improvements in one reinforce the other. This study investigates the role of knowledge-building in mediating the bidirectional relationship between procedural and conceptual learning. Our findings revealed a stable bidirectional relationship between procedural and conceptual knowledge, with higher post-test scores observed among students who engaged in knowledge-building, regardless of their procedural and conceptual pre-test performance. This suggests that knowledge-building serves as a crucial mechanism bridging the gap between students with low prior knowledge and higher conceptual and procedural learning gain.