Advancing Development of Intercultural Competence through Supporting Predictions in Narrative Video

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Ogan, Amy | Aleven, Vincent | Jones, Christopher

Affiliations: Human Computer Interaction Institute | Modern Languages Department Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. E-mail: aeo@andrew.cmu.edu, aleven@cs.cmu.edu, cjones@andrew.cmu.edu

Abstract: Most successes in intelligent tutoring systems have come in well-defined domains like algebra or physics. We investigate how to support students in acquiring ill-defined skills of intercultural competence using an online environment that employs clips of feature films from a target culture. To test the effectiveness of a set of attention-focusing techniques (pause-predict-ponder) we created ICCAT, a simple tutor that enhances an existing classroom model for the development of intercultural competence. We ran a study in two French Online classrooms with 34 participants, comparing ICCAT versions with and without these techniques. We found that the addition of pause-predict-ponder seemed to guide students in acquiring cultural knowledge and significantly increased students' ability to reason from an intercultural perspective. Further analysis of the posttest and the post-video viewing discussion found that students in the experimental condition were significantly assisted by the prediction, and were able to maintain a high quality of discussion over time. The research thus establishes that a simple model for intercultural competence activities, enhanced with the novel pause-predict-ponder techniques, is a viable approach to creating tutors in an ill-defined domain, and possibly better suited to the demands of the domain than the standard problem-solving approach embedded in intelligent tutoring systems.

Keywords: Ill-defined domains, intercultural competence, multimedia

Journal: International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 267-288, 2009