Our Projects
Mere Belief of Social Interaction
Previous social learning research has suggested that in technologically mediated contexts, the mere belief one is interacting with another human being rather than a computer agent leads to superior learning (Okita, Bailenson & Schwartz, 2007). Most research done on this topic, however, focuses on social interaction with virtual artifacts in virtual environments. This project suggests a shift of attention to social interaction with technological artifacts (i.e., agents and avatars) in physical environments, in the form of human-robot interaction (HRI), which might be considered as a relevant moderator variable in social learning.
Recursive Feedback
Feedback is important for learning. However, there are different types of feedback, and not all feedback is effective. Here we introduce recursive feedback (RF), which occurs when tutors observe their pupils use what they have been taught. On posttests, students who participate in recursive feedback exhibit greater abilities to use logic to solve novel problems compared to students in control conditions who received direct feedback. RF may further generalize to nonteaching situations that also involve a production–appropriation cycle, such as do-it-yourself projects in which people have a chance to learn from how other people take up their handiwork.
VIRTUAL REALITY CHemistry LAB
The VR Chemistry Lab is a virtual reality environment designed to mimic a real-life high school chemistry lab. It has been created to include the same instruments and laws of physics that exist in its real-life environment. Studies are being done to measure the potential for learning in the VR environment, the chronological order of when using VR is most effective, and what affordances of the VR environment are most advantageous for learning results and transfer.
Growth MindSet AND SOCIAL LEARNING
In this Growth Mindset and Teachable Agents project, the research focus is on how teachable agents instill mindsets that increase participants’ learning motivation, engagement, and better their learning outcomes. This project investigates the interaction and dynamics between participants and different teachable agents to see how learning is shaped in between. In addition, we are also curious to see how would that dynamic differ when participants interact with a teachable agent versus a human peer.
MÖBIUS - learning by making robotic gear
Understanding affordances in maker learning could offer guidance for improvements in learning and curriculum designs within the making context (Papavlasopoulou et al., 2017). This study determines how different making strategies influence science and engineering learning, and explore how the findings can be used to design/facilitate better instruction and scaffolding in the making environment.
BLOCKCHAIN INTERACTIVE ARTIFACT
Blockchain technology has gaining attention in different industries (eg. health care, supply chain, banking); however, it is still a big black box for children. The decentralization characteristic of blockchain brings a new perspective in understanding the current financial mechanisms. This research designs an interactive artifact and assesses how it could help children to understand financial literacy.
SENSE OF COMMUNITY IN LEARNING
Having a sense of social belonging brings positive influence in students’ intellectually evaluative contexts (Cohen et al., 1999; Walton & Cohen, 2007). Past research has examined how one’s races, gender and learning instructions influence one’s sense of community. As online learning is becoming one of the main learning modes, this research explores online and face-to-face students’ sense of community and design a technological artifact to leverage students' sense of community.