AN INTELLIGENT TUTOR TO ADVANCE INTEGRATED MATHEMATICS CURRICULA IN MIDDLE AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS

EDUCATORS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY FACE MAJOR CHALLENGES SUCH AS TEACHING SUBJECTS AND THINKING SKILLS THAT WILL PREPARE STUDENTS FOR TODAY'S GLOBAL ECONOMY AND MAINTAINING LEARNER INTEREST. THE EDUCATION COMMUNITY ITSELF IS EXPLORING PIONEERING APPROACHES SUCH AS THE INTEGRATION OF SUBJECTS RATHER THAN THE TRADITIONAL ISOLATION OF SUBJECT-MATTER INTO BOXES. A CASE-BASED REASONING (CBR) INTELLIGENT TUTOR WILL BE EXPLORED FOR SECONDARY TEACHERS THAT WILL ADDRESS AND SHOULD SIGNIFICANTLY ALLEVIATE THESE TWO PROBLEMS BY USING CURRICULUM INTEGRATION. A TOOL WILL BE DEVELOPED TO ENABLE TEACHERS BOTH TO UTILIZE THEIR YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALS UNIQUE TO THE SPECIFIC EDUCATIONAL SITUATION AND TO MAINTAIN LEARNER INTEREST AND DEVELOP PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS. BY USING AN INTEGRATED CURRICULUM PROGRAM DEVELOPED BY A TEAM OF TEACHERS OVER TEN YEARS AS A MODEL FOR AN EXPERT SYSTEM, TEACHERS NATIONWIDE WILL BE ASSISTED IN USING THIS APPROACH IN CLASSROOMS. MEMORY ORGANIZATION PACKETS WILL BE USED TO REPRESENT CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS (CASES) IN A HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE OPTIMIZED FOR EDUCATIONAL CBR AND FUZZY LOGIC TO MODIFY THE CASES. PHASE I WILL INVESTIGATE THE CONCEPT THAT AN EXISTING PROGRAM INTEGRATING MATHEMATICS, BIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES, AND LANGUAGE ARTS FOR A SECONDARY CLASS CAN BE FORMULATED USING CBR AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE METHODOLOGY AS AN AID TO TEACHERS. PHASE II WILL PROVE THE SYSTEM IN ALREADY IDENTIFIED SECONDARY SCHOOLS THAT HAVE APPLE MACINTOSH PLUS COMPUTERS AVAILABLE TO TEACHERS.