| dc.description.abstract | The social studies curriculum plays a critical role in foundational education. However, the current social studies curriculum, delivered via traditional media like paper textbooks and videos, often fails to significantly boost students′ motivation to learn. Therefore, this study investigates the development of a virtual peer system by using a Generative AI question generating learning system, which aims to enhance the learning effectiveness and motivation in social education. Through the self-developed Exam Monster online learning platform, this study introduces the mechanism of learning peers, where students can adopt a small monster as a learning partner, and take care of and upgrade the monster during the learning process. The main learning mode of the system allows students to capture textbook content on their tablets, generate questions from the key words in the images, and combine them with gamification elements to practice challenges with peer-created questions. Leveraging this technology, the study integrates a problem generation learning model that enables students to identify central ideas in the textbook, craft a template for the problem using generative modeling creativity, and then alter it to formulate their unique problems. The study also allowed teachers to participate in the whole problem creation learning situation, and teachers could give students suggestions and feedback on problem modification through the overview of students′ learning history developed in this study, helping students to improve the quality of their problems and learning strategies.
The research involved 37 students from fourth to sixth grade who engaged in a 10-week social studies curriculum utilizing tablet computers. Quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were used to ensure a comprehensive understanding of students′ perspectives. Instruments used in the study included the Social Studies Competency Test, Motivation to Learn Scale, Critical Thinking Scale, and Self-Directed Learning Scale. A questionnaire was used to assess the students′ perceptions of the system′s functioning and the potential impact of learning methods on learning motivation.
The findings indicated that there was a significant improvement in students′ academic success, motivation, critical thinking abilities, and capacity for self-directed learning. The clustering analysis indicated that high-performing students tackled questions with greater diligence within the Paper Monster challenge platform, achieving a higher accuracy rate and frequently revisiting the challenges. Furthermore, assessments segmented by grade level showed that students at more advanced grade levels exhibited increased engagement rates in response to utilizing the challenge system. In this study, the developed question-creation learning model and platform improved student learning results and pinpointed behavioral differences among students with higher performance levels. Moving forward, we might consider applying this educational model to different fields of study. Additionally, enlarging the scope of the experiment could help us to more conclusively verify its effectiveness. | en_US |