Student interactions during class activities: a mathematical model

Keywords

Code:
39/2016
Title:
Student interactions during class activities: a mathematical model
Date:
Monday 7th November 2016
Author(s):
Andrà, C.; Brunetto, D.; Parolini, N.; Verani, M.
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Abstract:
We propose a mathematical model describing the interactions among students during work group activities aimed at solving a math problem. The model, which hinges upon the pioneering work of Hegselmann and Krause, is able to incorporate: 1) the feelings of each student towards the classmates (building upon the “I can”-“You can” framework); 2) the influence of the correct solution to model the students’ preparation; 3) the presence of the teacher, who may or may not intervene to drive students towards the correct solution of the problem. Several numerical experiments are presented to assess the capability of the model in reproducing typical realistic scenarios.
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Communications in Applied and Industrial Mathematics