Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom

Various teaching strategies have been employed in attempting to overcome the d i f f i c u l t i e s experienced by students learning computer programming on courses held at the Bedford College of Higher Education,England. The problem remains unsolved; the main d i f f i c u l t y encountered l i e s in the development of the algorithm, not in the syntax or semantics of the language. The contribution gained by the use of flowcharts has been negligible; the major c o n t r i b u t i o n came from allowing the students to work in groups. The essay follows the argument that, accepting the premise that programming requires l o g i c a l t h i n k i n g , a solution to t h i s problem may be forthcoming if it is tackled by helping these students to develop problem solving s k i l l s from an early age; thereby placing the onus on the schoolteacher. Use of educational tools, namely BIGTRAK, i n i t i a l l y for the very young, followed by the TURTLE with L O G O programming, and l a t t e r l y microProlog is advocated. The paper is introduced by a brief discourse on the concept of knowledge, in order to confirm that to teach thinking is d i f f i c u l t , and hence t h a t there is a r o l e f o r some aspect of a r t i f i c i a l intelligence in the classroom. By d e f i n i t i o n , a teacher's role in the classroom must be that of one who teaches, imparting knowledge and guiding the studies of the pupils. But, the concept of knowledge is d i f f i c u l t to define and cannot be determined precisely in the way that some words can. In attempting to define the constituents of the concept of knowledge, various notions can be considered, Attempts have been made to break knowledge into divisions, Hirst,(1973) put forward the suggestion that knowledge was separable into d i s t i n c t forms, such as mathematics, physical sciences etc. But, if these forms …