📋 Tender Overview
Machine-Assisted Teaching For Open-Ended Problem Solving: Foundations And Applications
Computational Thinking And Problem Solving Skills Are Essential For Everyone In The 21St Century, Both For Students To Excel In Stem+Computing Fields And For Adults To Thrive In The Digital Economy. Consequently, Educators Are Putting Increasing Emphasis On Pedagogical Tasks In Open-Ended Domains Such As Programming, Conceptual Puzzles, And Virtual Reality Environments. When Learning To Solve Such Open-Ended Tasks By Themselves, People Often Struggle. The Difficulties Are Embodied In The Very Nature Of Tasks Being Open-Ended: (A) Underspecified (Multiple Solutions Of Variable Quality), (B) Conceptual (No Well-Defined Procedure), (C) Sequential (Series Of Interdependent Steps Needed), And (D) Exploratory (Multiple Pathways To Reach A Solution). These Struggling Learners Can Benefit From Individualized Assistance, For Instance, By Receiving Personalized Curriculum Across Tasks Or Feedback Within A Task. Unfortunately, Human Tutoring Resources Are Scarce, And Receiving Individualized Human-Assistance Is Rather A Privilege. Technology Empowered By Artificial Intelligence Has The Potential To Tackle This Scarcity Challenge By Providing Scalable And Automated Machine-Assisted Teaching. However, The State-Of-The-Art Technology Is Limited: It Is Designed For Well-Defined Procedural Learning, But Not For Open-Ended Conceptual Problem Solving. The Tops Project Will Develop Next-Generation Technology For Machine-Assisted Teaching In Open-Ended Domains. We Will Design Novel Algorithms For Assisting The Learner By Bridging Reinforcement Learning, Imitation Learning, Cognitive Science, And Symbolic Reasoning. Our Theoretical Foundations Will Be Based On A Computational Framework That Models The Learner As A Reinforcement Learning Agent Who Gains Mastery With The Assistance Of An Automated Teacher. In Addition To Providing Solid Foundations, We Will Demonstrate The Performance Of Our Techniques In A Wide Range Of Pedagogical Applications.
Funded Under
European Research Council (Erc)
Total Cost
€ 1 495 000,00
Eu Contribution
€ 1 495 000,00
Coordinated By
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Zur Forderung Der Wissenschaften Ev
Germany
Start Date
1 April 2022
End Date
31 March 2027
Objective
Computational thinking and problem solving skills are essential for everyone in the 21st century, both for students to excel in STEM+Computing fields and for adults to thrive in the digital economy. Consequently, educators are putting increasing emphasis on pedagogical tasks in open-ended domains such as programming, conceptual puzzles, and virtual reality environments. When learning to solve such open-ended tasks by themselves, people often struggle. The difficulties are embodied in the very nature of tasks being open-ended: (a) underspecified (multiple solutions of variable quality), (b) conceptual (no well-defined procedure), (c) sequential (series of interdependent steps needed),
