Publication

Investigating the effects of motivational pedagogical agents on student learning and choice making in an adaptive learning system

Man Su, Katharina Bonaventura, Tomohiro Nagashima

ECTEL2025 · 2025

@inproceedings{su2025investigating,
  title     = {Investigating the effects of motivational pedagogical agents on student learning and choice making in an adaptive learning system},
  author    = {Man Su and Katharina Bonaventura and Tomohiro Nagashima},
  booktitle = {ECTEL2025},
  year      = {2025},
  doi       = {10.1007/978-3-032-03873-9_32},
}

Abstract

The use of pedagogical agents (PAs) in interactive learning environments holds promise for improving learning outcomes, yet their impact on strategic choice making remains underexplored. This study investigated how motivational pedagogical agents influence students’ conceptual learning and choice-making behaviors, such as whether to engage in metacognitive tasks that are optional, when using an adaptive algebra learning technology. In an experiment, 49 high school students were assigned to either an Agent condition, featuring motivational prompts delivered by PAs, or a Non-Agent condition without PAs nor prompts. Although the motivational prompts by PAs did not significantly improve overall learning gains or reduce error rates compared to the Non-Agent condition, younger students (Grade 9) demonstrated modestly higher improvements, suggesting differential benefits based on students’ prior knowledge. Additionally, older students (Grade 10) in the Agent condition showed higher engagement with optional tasks over time. These findings highlight the potential of motivational PAs to support strategic choice-making and indicate the need for future adaptive systems to offer context-sensitive prompts that guide learners in making productive choices aligned with their learning goals and self-regulation needs.