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Carnegie Mellon University

Faculty Members Involved in the Research Group

Marsha Lovett
Oded Meyer
Joel Greenhouse
Brian Junker
Rob Kass
Ken Koedinger

Description of Research

The research of this group helped develop the software program StatTutor. StatTutor is an intelligent tutoring system that facilitates understanding of statistical ideas and analytical techniques by helping students construct useful knowledge representations and thereby develop effective problem-solving skills. It uses a specified outline of steps to follow in solving problems, or "scaffolding." StatTutor uses scaffolding and immediate feedback flexibly, tracking and responding to individual students as they navigate the learning environment.

Websites

StatTutor Homepage
www.cmu.edu/stattutor

Learning and Problem-Solving Laboratory
www.psy.cmu.edu/LAPS

Selected Publications

• Meyer, O., & Lovett, M. C. (2002). Implementing a cognitive tutor in a statistical reasoning course: Getting the big picture. In Proceedings of the Sixth Annual International Conference on the Teaching of Statistics.
• Lovett, M. C. (2001). A Collaborative convergence on studying reasoning processes: A case study in statistics. In S. Carver, & D. Klahr (Eds.) Cognition and instruction: Twenty-five years of progress (pp. 347-384). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Lovett, M. C., & Greenhouse, J. B. (2000). Applying cognitive theory to statistics instruction. The American Statistician, 54, 196-206.