Using AI to gain a deeper understanding of learners’ mathematical thinking

alea.schule is a digital platform, created and provided by scientific institutions, that helps teachers to comprehend their students’ thought processes in a way that gives access to specific educational insights. Already in use in a number of German federal states, the platform is now undergoing further improvements in dialogue with teachers and with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI). The academics behind the platform gained funding for the advances in the Leibniz Competition, run by the Leibniz Association.

The institutions involved in the development of alea.schule are DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education,  TU Dortmund University, and the German Centre for Mathematics Teacher Education (DZLM), an institution affiliated to  the IPN – Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education. The team of researchers working on the platform have a clear aim that they intend to pursue with the newly acquired funding: “We want the platform to provide profound insights into [learners’] mathematical thinking and simultaneously reduce teachers’ workloads as they undertake complex processes of student assessment.”

About alea.schule

The platform’s approach involves learner assessment taking place alongside active processes of learning; students use it to tackle math problems, after which teachers receive an overview of their answers and a summary analysis, enabling them to respond to learners’ specific needs and support them while they learn rather than having to wait until the end of that process and, for instance, identify the extent of students’ progress from class tests. Currently, alea.schule makes available to teachers in the federal states of Hesse and Brandenburg 45 modules from Mathe sicher können, a system, developed on a scientific evidence base, for identifying difficulties with selected fundamental competencies in grade 3 to 7 math and helping learners to overcome them. Plans are underway for the modules to be accessible in further federal states and via the Startchancen programme, which supports schools with high proportions of learners affected by disadvantage.  

How the new developments will enhance the platform

The current project, funded within the Leibniz Competition’s Leibniz-Transfer program, is titled “Assessment for Learning with Artificial Intelligence (ALwAI) – Research-practice Partnerships and Scaled-up Transfer to Advance an AI-assisted Digital Formative Assessment Platform,” and is scheduled for a three-year duration covering the years 2025 to 2027. Its aim will be to make various improvements to alea.schule. One of these will involve optimizing the platform’s accessibility to learners, incorporating functionalities such as handwriting recognition and voice input. Teachers will have access to AI-based suggestions for assessing students’ answers and supporting them with their further learning. The purpose of these changes is to make the process of learning more efficient and help teachers to tailor their support for learners as precisely as possible to their individual needs.

The project’s work will rest on close collaboration between academics and educational practitioners, with each contributing their experience and expertise. During its early stages, researchers and teachers will come together in small groups to work out how helpful the support provided by the AI is and how it might make sense to incorporate it into the platform. After several rounds of this collaborative stage of the project, the development work will take place, followed by testing and evaluation in larger groups. Alongside this, and as part of the project’s overarching process, the team will create CPD formats to provide support in the extended platform’s adoption and use.

The team of researchers conducting the project can draw on previous successful collaborations and on the range of expertise it collectively holds. DIPF will be taking the lead on development for the platform and the AI extensions to it, while also contributing its experience in realizing working partnerships between researchers and practitioners. The IPN will have a principal role in implementing the changes and training teachers, while TU Dortmund University will provide mathematics education expertise.

Hesse’s Ministry of Education has supplied funding for the platform’s development, and the Brandenburgian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports has supported its integration into the Vermittlungsdienst für das digitale Identitätsmanagement in Schulen (VIDIS) login system.

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Please visit the project website.

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