Article,
Investigation by Design: Developing Dialogue Models to Support Reasoning and Conceptual Change
International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education: Special Issue on Analysing Educational Dialogue Interaction: From Analysis to Models that Support Learning, 11 (1): 273--298 (2000)
Abstract
Theories of learning suggest that dialogue is important in shaping conceptual
development. However, there is widespread debate as to the forms and content of educational
dialogue and the roles participants should play in them. In addressing these issues we have
adopted an approach of 'investigation by design'. Based on an examination of dialogue from
case studies of tutoring in physics, we have abstracted a semi-natural set of dialogue moves
thought to be effective, and designed them into system-user interaction scenarios aimed at
supporting learning. This approach focuses on patterns of interaction emerging as possibly
effective and refines them to render them computationally tractable. For this we adopt dialogue
game theory as a design paradigm. Debating style dialogue games are applied according to a
formal pedagogic framework called 'learning as knowledge refinement'. This specifies a
collaborative framework for argumentation aimed at stimulating belief revision, and conceptual
change. In this framework the learner adopts the role of an 'explainer' whilst the system plays a
facilitating role and these participants collaborate to develop a shared explanatory model of a
qualitative physics domain. A prototype CoLLeGE (Computer based Lab for Language Games
in Education) system implements the framework and validates the model. An empirical study
using CoLLeGE demonstrates the educational potential of the approach.
