Social Motivation and Goal Orientations with a Teachable Agent: Implications for Improving Test Performance

Abstract

A recent study of ours suggested that the very presence of a Teachable Agent (TA) from a mathematics learning game might affect students’ test performance when the TA reappeared in the margin of a regular, digital math test. We hypothesized that this effect, which seemed to particularly target low-achievers, was due to the students’ mindset changing from that of “taking a test” to that of “teaching a TA”, besides offering low-performers with a unique opportunity to act as teachers. Here, we propose a framework for exploring these effects further, particularly with respect to the personal relationship students form with their TA and in relation to socially valued goal orientations. We outline three planned studies of TA-related social-motivational factors. The results would be useful for designing computerized tests that ease motivational constraints associated with traditional test situations at school, and construe more socially supportive test environments.