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New Haven Center For Technology and Cognitive Science-Based Individualized Education

Crisis in Public Education. During his first week in office, President Bush issued his education plan, "No Child Left Behind." The government recognizes that public education is in a state of “a genuine national crisis”. Connecticut is no exception: in 2005, 145 (18%) and in 2006, 290 (36%) of elementary and middle schools in CT failed to make “yearly adequate progress”. CT Acting Commissioner of Education, Dr. George A. Coleman, in the August 24, 2006 status report emphasized, “We have to focus on more effective strategies, a more surgical approach, more targeted to the unique learning needs of students… We need focused, individualized instruction for our lowest performing students. These students are mostly in our urban centers.”

Mission The mission of the Center is to help solve the crisis in education by individualization of instruction, according to the vision of Dr. George Coleman. The Center plans to implement intelligent software in all urban public schools in CT. The ultimate goal is to replicate the CT model across the entire country.

Concepts for Adaptive Learning is a member and organizer of the New Haven Center For Technology and Cognitive Science-Based Individualized Education. The Center is comprised of entities that share a common goal of helping urban school children improve their education. Other members include:

• New Haven Public Schools, NHPS, (educating 20,759 students)
• New Haven Federation of Teachers (supporting 1,600 educators within NHPS)
• Screen Mentor, Inc. (educational software development company)
• Department of Computer Science at Southern Connecticut State University
• Communication Department at Quinnipiac University
• PACE Center at Tufts University (PACE Center moved to Tufts from Yale University in 2006)

Project Description Traditional teaching methods leave many children behind because it ignores significant differences in students’ knowledge level, cognitive / thinking styles, speed of acquisition and other features. The Center plans to develop and implement innovative, intelligent educational software (starting with math for K – 8). The software understands the cognitive state of the student and simulates the teaching strategy of a talented teacher through customized presentation of educational material for every student, at every stage of the learning process. The nucleus of the software is individualization of content delivery, based on the triarchic theory of successful intelligence. The software takes into account that different students have different thinking / learning styles: analytical, creative, practical or their specific combination. The theory was formulated by Dr Robert Sternberg in 1985, and is proven in various studies during the last 20 years. Due to application of this theory, students perform 30% - 60% better on tests of achievement. The latest four-year study was funded by the National Science Foundation, and involved approximately 8,000 students across the US.

Research performed by the PACE Center also demonstrates that students from minority backgrounds often show greatest strength in creative and practical abilities. They benefit most from the application of triarchic method of teaching, since traditional education mostly addresses analytical thinking style. Their research showed that triarchic teaching is the most efficient method specifically targeted at closing the achievement gap among students from different backgrounds.

Intelligent software will provide fundamental help for teachers, students and parents. It can be efficiently used in a classroom with a computer for every student, or with a few computers, and at home. Specially designed architecture and unique interface help teachers smoothly integrate this software into any lesson plan, allowing teachers, students and parents to use the software without or with minimal additional training.

A team of world-renowned mathematicians, computer scientists, psychologists, educators and programmers from Tufts University, University of California, University of Pittsburgh and American Institutes for Research, as well as teachers and administrators from public schools will participate in the project.

Benefits

• Public school students with a higher level of academic achievement
• New Haven Public Schools and the state of Connecticut are a model for the country