Communications of the ACM

Contributed articles

Example-Based Learning in Computer-Aided STEM Education

By Sumit Gulwani
Communications of the ACM, August 2014, Vol. 57 No. 8, Pages 70-80
10.1145/2634273
Comments

Human learning and communication is often structured around examples, possibly a student trying to understand or master a certain concept through examples or a teacher trying to understand a student's misconceptions or provide feedback through example behaviors. Example-based reasoning is also used in computer-aided programming to analyze programs, including to find bugs through test-input-generation techniques^4,34 and prove correctness through inductive reasoning or random examples¹⁵ and synthesize programs through input/output examples or demonstrations.^10,16,18,22 This article explores how such example-based reasoning techniques developed in the programming-languages community can also help automate certain repetitive and structured tasks in education, including problem generation, solution generation, and feedback generation.

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Key Insights

These connections are illustrated through recent work (in computer science) applied to a variety of STEM subject domains, including logic,¹ automata theory,³ programming,²⁷ arithmetic,^5,6 algebra,²⁶ and geometry.¹⁷ More significant, the article identifies some general principles and methodologies that are applicable across multiple subject domains.

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