Publication details
Software pro měření efektivity učení u dětí (Ulrik a výzkum ptáků)
| Title in English | Software for Measuring Children's Learning Efficiency (Ulrik and the Bird Research) |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Software |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| web | https://invenio.muni.cz/prehled-her/ulrik-a-vyzkum-ptaku |
| Description | Software for Measuring Children's Learning Efficiency (Ulrik and the Bird Research) is an assessment tool which is part of the broader system of computerized screening tests GIS-Invenio. Like the other components of this system, the application is conceptually based on the so-called CHC theory of intelligence, and within its framework it focuses on determining the level of learning efficiency. In CHC model, the learning efficiency is construed as a broad ability to store information in long-term memory and to retrieve it correctly when needed. To measure this ability, the “Ulrik” software uses the principle of associative learning – information to be remembered is thus linked by no logical nor meaning connection. To increase the engagement of assessed individuals and to reduce their test anxiety, the program makes use of the GBA paradigm: the tasks are framed as a computer game, including gamified features, such as a simple narrative, comics, sounds, interaction with an animated guide etc. In this particular case, the game requires the player to help an ornithologist named Ulrik, who studies birds on an alien planet, to remember as much as possible about these birds. For this sake the player gradually learns the associations between the picture of a bird and the sound made by that bird, or with the name assigned to that bird (the name is an artificial pseudoword with no original meaning in the mother tongue of the tested person). Furthermore, the player learns the association between the picture of the bird and the picture of the food preferred by that bird. Subsequently, the player is supposed to recall these learnt associations– for example to select the appropriate bird from a wider group after hearing its specific sound etc. Compared with some “classical” intelligence tests, which use a similar principle, this software application has the advantage of making it possible to combine associations across different modalities (i.e. visual – sound) or to test indirect associations mediated by an intermediary element. This both makes the passage through the test more diverting and, at the same time, it enables generating more difficult items, thus precluding the ceiling effect on measuring learning efficiency. The norms for the software test were created in the course of standardization which involved several hundred of children across various regions of the Czech Republic, and they are continuously updated. The software is based on modern knowledge in the domain of cognitive psychology, and it enables mass administration carried out on-line to potentially very large populations of children. An IRT approach is used for the evaluation of the outcomes. Based on this evaluation, the report for parents is automatically generated, containing the results and recommendations for further fostering the abilities of the child. |