 |
The Professor and the Cognitive Tutor
Elizabeth Jones' new friend is going to help her teach genetics. The
friend is a cognitive tutor, computer software that guides students
through the problem-solving process that takes genetics from abstract
theory into practice.
"I have been teaching genetics for 30 years," says Jones, a research
geneticist who studies the cellular pathways in yeast that proteins
follow to reach their proper destination, "and that entire time, I have
been trying to find useful teaching tools to help students learn to
solve genetics problems." Interactive tutoring is the most effective
approach, but Jones, the Dr. Frederick A. Schwertz Distinguished
Professor of Life Sciences, head of Carnegie Mellon's Department of
Biological Sciences and director of HHMI's undergraduate grant there,
doesn't have the time or person-power to provide one-on-one tutoring to
every undergraduate.
While studying how students learn, investigators in the Psychology
Department at Carnegie Mellon developed the cognitive tutor to help
teach mathematics to middle and high school students and to test their
models of learning. Today's students, who cut their teeth on computer
games, not only love the tutor; they learn the material three times
faster and do much better on tests.
Since genetics is a quantitative, logic-based and problem-based
science, Jones thought that such a computer tutor might help her
undergraduates too. So she gave the math tutor a try. "I was absolutely
astounded," she says. "Most tutoring software gives students a problem
and an answer. The cognitive tutor provides a starting point and
multiple routes to the end point. It immediately notifies you of a
mistake in the process, and if you can't correct it, you can ask for
progressively revealing hints. You always get to solve the problem
correctly, and you end up understanding each step you've taken."
As an HHMI Professor, Jones is developing a cognitive tutor for the
70-90 juniors in her undergraduate genetics courses. "There is a crying
need for something like this," she says. Approximately 100,000 college
students who take genetics nationwide each year, as well as 16,300
medical students, could benefit.
Jones realizes that she is a role model for women in the sciences.
Originally a chemistry major, she found "less than a warm welcome for
women in chemistry." She needed to work to put herself through the
University of Washington and got a job in a geneticist's lab. "He and
his wife gave me a lot of personal attention," she recalls. "I also
discovered that I was a much better geneticist than I was a
chemist."
As a research scientist, Jones has always made time to give the kind
of mentoring that made such a difference to her as an undergraduate. At
Carnegie Mellon, she's found a research home where teaching is valued
and rewarded. "You won't get tenure here if you don't teach well, just
as you won't get tenure if you don't do outstanding research," she
says.
|
|
|
|
