Children’s Choice of Pedagogical Agents

• In Event: RTD - Animated Pedagogical Agents

Short Description

The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) test similarity-attraction theory in terms of children’s selection of pedagogical agents designed to serve as virtual math tutors; and 2) examine whether math anxiety and math self-efficacy affect student choice of these pedagogical agents. Participants include more than one hundred middle school students. Results suggest that student gender predicted their choice of agent gender, confirming the similarity-attraction theory in terms of gender. In addition, student math self-efficacy level was found to predict their choice of agent gender. Implications of the results will be discussed during the presentation.

Authors

• Xiaoxia Huang, Western Kentucky University

• Justin Mathews, Western Kentucky University

• E-Ling Hsiao, Valdosta State University

• Linghao Liu, Western Kentucky University