A group decision approach to developing concept–effect models for diagnosing student learning problems in mathematics

Abstract

Diagnosing student learning barriers has been recognized as the most fundamental and important issue for improving the learning achievements of students. In the past decade, several learning diagnosis approaches have been proposed based on the concept–effect relationship (CER) model. However, past studies have shown that the effectiveness of this model heavily depends on the concept relationship knowledge provided by the domain experts (eg, experienced teachers or educators for a specified subject); ie, the performance of the developed learning diagnosis systems could be significantly affected by subjective opinions, ignorance or insufficient knowledge if those concept relationships are derived from a single domain expert. To cope with this problem, this study proposes a group decision approach for developing the CER model with the cooperation of multiple domain experts. Based on the proposed approach, a testing and diagnostic system has been implemented; moreover, an experiment has been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of this new approach. The experimental results show that this approach is able to develop quality CER models, and hence the low‐achievement students who received the generated learning suggestions had significantly better learning achievements than those who learned with the previous approach. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic Diagnosing student learning barriers is a fundamental and important issue for improving the learning achievements of students. Several learning diagnosis approaches have been proposed based on the concept–effect relationship (CER) model. The effectiveness of the learning diagnosis model heavily depends on the concept relationship knowledge provided by the domain experts. What this paper adds A group decision approach for developing the CER model with the cooperation of multiple domain experts is proposed. A testing and diagnostic system was implemented based on the proposed approach. An experiment was conducted to investigating whether the students guided by the proposed approach had better learning achievements than those guided by the original CER model approach. Implications for practice and/or policy The experimental results show that the low‐achievement students who received the learning suggestions generated by the new approach had significantly better learning achievements than those who learned with the previous approach. Further studies of developing more effective tools or leading in other group decision strategies to help domain experts cooperatively determine the prerequisite relationships are needed.

Fuzzy logic and Gagné learning hierarchy for assessing mathematics skills

“…The second part F 2 contained three concepts and six questions. The third part F 3 [6,6,8,10], the crisp output value for learning achievement was 10.33. Table 3 shows the respective ranges of crisp output values for evaluating learning achievement.…”

“…The traditional interpretation would be that the student understood 87% of the tested concepts. Figure 8 shows that, according to the learning achievement analysis by FL-GLH [F 1 , F 2 , F 3 , F 4 ] was equal to [5,5,8,8], and the crisp output value for learning achievement was 9.58. Based on the range of crisp output values in Table 3, student 4 understood the concepts up to interval F 4 (concepts C 10 -C 11 ).…”

A time sequence-oriented concept map approach to developing educational computer games for history courses

“…Concept maps are usually used in educational settings in three ways: (1) Instructional guidance: the concept maps generated by educational experts or instructors are used as a knowledge map for guiding students to learn (Charsky & Ressler, 2011;; (2) Assessment tool: the concepts developed by students are assessed and scored to find their misconceptions or evaluate their knowledge structure (Hwang, Panjaburee, Triampo, & Shih, 2013;Panjaburee, Triampo, Hwang, Chuedoung, & Triampo, 2013); (3) Knowledge organizing tools: concept maps are used as a tool for helping students organize what they have learned. Teachers can either ask students to complete a partially-developed concept map Lin, 2012; or develop a new concept map from the beginning (Charsky & Ressler, 2011;Hamza & Wickman, 2013;Novak, 2010).…”

Effects of concept map extraction and a test‐based diagnostic environment on learning achievement and learners' perceptions

“…Panjaburees, Triampo, Hwang, Chuedoung and Triampo (2013) used a novel technique to present concept weights for each test item and a learning-preference style for each learner. In addition, previous studies have been conducted that integrate the opinions of multiple experts on learning-diagnosis enhancement (Hwang, Panjaburee, Triampo & Shih, 2013a;Panjaburee, Hwang, Triampo & Shih, 2010;Wanichsan, Panjaburee, Laosinchai, Triampo & Chookaew, 2012). These studies have revealed the importance of providing diagnostic information to individual students based on their learning status.…”