David Klahr

The purpose of this project is to develop and pilot test the Inquiry-based Science Projects (ISP) Tutor, an enhanced version of the computer-based adaptive Tutor for Experimental Design (TED). ISP will provide instructional support to improve students' ability to perform experimental science in extended, engaging, and meaningful contexts. TED, which was developed with prior IES funding (Training in Experimental Design: Developing Scalable and Adaptive Computer-based Science Instruction and P...

hrough this 2015 grant, PIER continued to train fellows to conduct rigorous research on learning conditions related to curriculum, instruction, and assessment to improve academic outcomes for diverse prekindergarten through postsecondary students.

The postdoctoral program trained four scientists to do rigorous research on learning conditions related to curriculum, instruction, and assessment for diverse K–12 student populations.

Students from third to seventh grade have a surprisingly poor understanding of the basic procedural and conceptual aspects of experimental design (simply labeled here as "CVS," for the Control of Variables Strategy). Although students' understanding of CVS does improve as a result of direct instruction, students' performance is typically low, even when a repeated tutoring cycle of instruction is used. The purpose of this project is to determine which elements are critical to support the teac...

Carnegie Mellon established the Program in Interdisciplinary Education Research (PIER) with funding from a 2004 IES grant. With the 2009 grant, PIER continued to train scientists to conduct rigorous research on learning conditions related to curriculum, instruction, and assessment to improve academic outcomes for diverse prekindergarten through postsecondary students.

In this project, the researchers proposed to develop a computer-based intelligent tutoring system that would provide instruction to help students learn about experimental design. This intelligent tutoring system, called Intelligent TED Tutor, would provide feedback based on individual learners' knowledge and mastery in real time across a variety of tasks and science content areas. The research team argued that it was important for students to master two aspects of the scientific method: (a) ...