On the Benefits of Seeking (and Avoiding) Help in Online Problem-Solving Environments

Seeking the right level of help at the right time can support learning. However, in the context of online problem-solving environments, it is still not entirely clear which help-seeking strategies are desired. We use fine-grained data from 38 high school students who worked with the Geometry Cogniti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of the learning sciences 2014-10, Vol.23 (4), p.537-560
Main Authors: Roll, Ido, Baker, Ryan S. J. d., Aleven, Vincent, Koedinger, Kenneth R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior Patterns
Comparative Analysis
Correlation
Educational evaluation
Educational theory
Geometry
Help Seeking
High School Students
Intelligent Tutoring Systems
Learning
Learning Processes
Mathematical problems
Mathematics education
Mathematics Instruction
Novices
Pennsylvania
Prior Learning
Problem Solving
Statistical Analysis
Student behavior
Tutoring
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Summary:Seeking the right level of help at the right time can support learning. However, in the context of online problem-solving environments, it is still not entirely clear which help-seeking strategies are desired. We use fine-grained data from 38 high school students who worked with the Geometry Cognitive Tutor for 2 months to better understand the associations between specific help-seeking patterns and learning. We evaluate how students' help-seeking behaviors on each step in a tutored problem are associated with their success on subsequent steps that require the same skills. Analyzing learning at the skill level allows us to compare different help-seeking patterns within a single student, controlling for between-student variations. Overall, asking for help on challenging steps is associated with productive learning, and overusing help is associated with poorer learning. However, contrary to many help-seeking theories, avoiding help (and failing repeatedly) is associated with better learning than seeking help on steps for which students have low prior knowledge. These results suggest that novice learners may benefit from engaging in solution attempts before they can make sense of given assistance. Methodological benefits for using local measures of learning are discussed, and comparisons are drawn to other forms of productive failure in problem solving.
ISSN:1050-8406
1532-7809
DOI:10.1080/10508406.2014.883977