An agent-based model for teaching–learning processes

Ignacio Ormazábal, Félix A. Borotto and Hernán F. Astudillo

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2021, vol. 565, issue C

Abstract: This paper presents an agent-based model for describing the increase the knowledge by accumulating the information needed to complete a learning task or objectives, based on phenomena studied by behavioral and learning scientists. From the simulations, the average increase rate in knowledge, the skewness and kurtosis of knowledge distributions, and grade distributions are determined. These tools make it possible to evaluate the efficiency of teaching strategies and the performance of learning in the classroom. The present model significantly reproduces the phenomenology obtained in Bordogna and Albano (2001), showing first and second-order phase transitions and the temporal dynamics of knowledge. Furthermore, the results of our model allow us to built a gas model analogy. Some of the study cases show characteristics of systems far from the state of thermodynamic equilibrium. This allows us to use the known techniques from gas models to interpret the dynamics of the simulated learning process. The presented model does not describe the teaching–learning process in all its complexity. We use a simple behavioral characteristic of the persons, namely, the inattentional private experience. However, it allows us to prove learning strategies to optimize the learning process. Also, this model is a starting point to propose new models with more elements from neuroscience and sociophysics to study in greater depth the dynamics of the classroom.

Keywords: Teaching–learning process; Agent-based model; Sociophysics; Complex Systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037843712030861X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:565:y:2021:i:c:s037843712030861x

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2020.125563

Access Statistics for this article

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications is currently edited by K. A. Dawson, J. O. Indekeu, H.E. Stanley and C. Tsallis

More articles in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().