NEWS

This May, Prof. Justine Cassell, post-doc researcher Zhen Bai and PhD student Tanmay Sinha presented the latest findings of the SCIPR project at the CHI’17 workshop “Designing for Curiosity and Interdisciplinary Workshop” at Denver. The position paper can be found here.

Tanmay Sinha, Zhen Bai, and Justine Cassell

A Theoretical Framework of Curiosity in Small Group Learning

Abstract: Curiosity is a vital socio-emotional skill in educational contexts. Yet, little is known about how social factors influence curiosity in small group learning. We argue that curiosity is evoked not only through individual, but also interpersonal activities in group learning. We are developing what we believe to be the first theoretical framework that articulates an integrated psychological and social infrastructure of curiosity based on literature spanning psychology, learning sciences and group dynamics, and empirical observation of small group science learning across different learning environments. The goal is to lay a foundation for a computational model of curiosity that is capable of guiding the design of learning technology, to recognize and evoke curiosity in small group learning.