Kenneth R. Koedinger
koedinger@cmu.edu
Professor
Contact:
Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center
Human
Computer Interaction Institute
School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891
Office: 3601 Newell-Simon Hall
Phone: 412-268-7667
Fax: 412-268-1266
Home
| Research Statement
| Current Papers
| Curriculum Vitae
Biography
My background includes a BS in Mathematics, a MS in Computer Science, a PhD in Cognitive Psychology, and experience teaching in an urban high school. This multi-disciplinary preparation has been critical to my research goal of creating educational technologies that dramatically increase student achievement. Toward this goal, I create "cognitive models", computer simulations of student thinking and learning, that are used to guide the design of educational materials, practices and technologies. These cognitive models provide the basis for an approach to educational technology called "Cognitive Tutors" in which we create rich problem solving environments for students to work in and provide just-in-time learning assistance much like a good human tutor does. I have developed Cognitive Tutors for mathematics and science and have tested them in the laboratory and the classroom. In a whole-year classroom study with our Algebra Cognitive Tutor, I have shown that students in our experimental classrooms outperformed students in control classes by 50-100% on targeted real world problem solving skills and by 10-25% on standardized tests. My research has contributed new principles and techniques for the design of educational software and has produced basic cognitive science research results on the nature of mathematical thinking and learning. I have authored 67 peer-reviewed publications, 6 book chapters, and 42 other papers and have been a Project Investigator on 16 major grants. I am a co-founder and board member of Carnegie Learning, Inc. and the CMU director of the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC). The PSLC is a $25 million National Science Foundation center that will provide researchers with the "LearnLab", an international resource for creating, running, and analyzing realistic and rigorous experiments on human and machine learning.
Return to the PACT Home Page
Last Updated November, 2008