arXiv subjects

Shiyan Jiang

Publications and source records attributed to Shiyan Jiang.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Analyzing Middle School Students' Dialogue and Behaviors during Collaborative AI Chatbot Development Using Ordered Network Analysis

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) education has become a key component of K-12 curricula, activities such as designing and developing conversational agents are increasingly used as instructional practice. Prior work has primarily examined these activities by focusing on students' learning outcomes or the quality of final AI artifacts, offering limited insight into the collaborative processes through which learning unfolds during AI system development. Although the AIED community has a long history of studying collaborative learning in STEM and Computing education, the emergence of AI learning environments in which students build AI systems presents new opportunities to understand how collaboration unfolds in AI education contexts. Grounded in these foundational works, the current study examines collaborative interaction among middle school students engaged in the design and development of an AI chatbot. Using Ordered Network Analysis of students' dialogue and development actions, we characterize how collaboration is organized over time and how interaction patterns relate to chatbot quality and AI knowledge outcomes. Results reveal that higher-quality chatbots are associated with more integrated sequences linking explanation, testing, and refinement. Interaction patterns involving articulated reasoning and repeated testing and revision in response to chatbot output were also associated with stronger AI knowledge outcomes. These findings provide a process-oriented account of collaborative AI chatbot development and extend AIED research on collaborative learning processes to AI education contexts.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Democratizing Foundations of Problem-Solving with AI: A Breadth-First Search Curriculum for Middle School Students

As AI becomes more common in students' everyday experiences, a major challenge for K-12 AI education is designing learning experiences that can be meaningfully integrated into existing subject-area instruction. This paper presents the design and implementation of an AI4K12-aligned curriculum that embeds AI learning goals within a rural middle school science classroom using Breadth-First Search (BFS) as an accessible entry point to AI problem-solving. Through unplugged activities and an interactive simulation environment, students learned BFS as a strategy for exploring networks and identifying shortest paths, then applied it to science contexts involving virus spread and contact tracing. To examine engagement and learning, we analyzed pre- and post-assessments, student work artifacts, and a teacher interview. Results suggest that students engaged productively with the curriculum, improved their understanding of BFS and AI problem-solving, and benefited from learning these ideas within ongoing science instruction. Teacher feedback further indicated that the module fit well within the science curriculum while supporting intended science learning outcomes. We conclude with curriculum and design considerations for broadening access to learning about problem-solving with AI in education.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2025

Beyond prior knowledge: The predictive role of knowledge-building in Tutor Learning

When adopting the role of a teacher in learning-by-teaching environments, students often struggle to engage in knowledge-building activities, such as providing explanations and addressing misconceptions. Instead, they frequently default to knowledge-telling behaviors, where they simply dictate what they already know or what to do without deeper reflection, thereby limiting learning. Teachable agents, particularly those capable of posing persistent follow-up questions, have been shown to encourage students (tutors) to shift from knowledge-telling to knowledge-building and enhance tutor learning. Tutor learning encompasses two interrelated types of knowledge: conceptual and procedural knowledge. Research has established a bidirectional relationship between these knowledge types, where improvements in one reinforce the other. This study investigates the role of knowledge-building in mediating the bidirectional relationship between procedural and conceptual learning. Our findings revealed a stable bidirectional relationship between procedural and conceptual knowledge, with higher post-test scores observed among students who engaged in knowledge-building, regardless of their procedural and conceptual pre-test performance. This suggests that knowledge-building serves as a crucial mechanism bridging the gap between students with low prior knowledge and higher conceptual and procedural learning gain.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

Leveraging Prompts in LLMs to Overcome Imbalances in Complex Educational Text Data

In this paper, we explore the potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) with assertions to mitigate imbalances in educational datasets. Traditional models often fall short in such contexts, particularly due to the complexity and nuanced nature of the data. This issue is especially prominent in the education sector, where cognitive engagement levels among students show significant variation in their open responses. To test our hypothesis, we utilized an existing technology for assertion-based prompt engineering through an 'Iterative - ICL PE Design Process' comparing traditional Machine Learning (ML) models against LLMs augmented with assertions (N=135). Further, we conduct a sensitivity analysis on a subset (n=27), examining the variance in model performance concerning classification metrics and cognitive engagement levels in each iteration. Our findings reveal that LLMs with assertions significantly outperform traditional ML models, particularly in cognitive engagement levels with minority representation, registering up to a 32% increase in F1-score. Additionally, our sensitivity study indicates that incorporating targeted assertions into the LLM tested on the subset enhances its performance by 11.94%. This improvement primarily addresses errors stemming from the model's limitations in understanding context and resolving lexical ambiguities in student responses.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2023

Making Sense of Machine Learning: Integrating Youth's Conceptual, Creative, and Critical Understandings of AI

Understanding how youth make sense of machine learning and how learning about machine learning can be supported in and out of school is more relevant than ever before as young people interact with machine learning powered applications everyday; while connecting with friends, listening to music, playing games, or attending school. In this symposium, we present different perspectives on understanding how learners make sense of machine learning in their everyday lives, how sensemaking of machine learning can be supported in and out of school through the construction of applications, and how youth critically evaluate machine learning powered systems. We discuss how sensemaking of machine learning applications involves the development and integration of conceptual, creative, and critical understandings that are increasingly important to prepare youth to participate in the world.

cs.CY↗