Semiautomated cognitive tutor, to serve as a support in upper secondary students in solving algebra problems

Learning mathematics is closely related with the fact that the student knows how to solve problems. There are cognitive theories that say that problem solving teaching requires techniques based on the student's cognitive ability, linked to the type of problems or examples (when cognitive ability is low) that must work. This process requires automated tools to identify the characteristics of the students in order to provide more personalized teaching strategies and also manage feedback that helps the student and the teacher to identify their achievements. These types of automated tools are known as cognitive tutors, which are intelligent tutoring systems, with the particularity of being focused on providing individualized support to students to improve their complex cognitive skills, through problem-solving practice. On the other hand, it is considered that algebra, in addition to arithmetic, are the areas that serve as the basis for the understanding of many mathematical subjects. Therefore, in this thesis project a semi-automated tool is proposed, by means of which, the different modules of a cognitive tutor are implemented, following an instructional design for solving algebra problems, through the management of gamification and game strategies based on the techniques of computational theory of tangible user interfaces. For the student model module, a fuzzy model is used to detect and classify the student's cognitive ability. In modules of model of the domain and the tutor model, fuzzy cognitive maps are defined and implemented to determine, respectively, the activities related to the different types of problems related to various algebra topics and to determine the pedagogical activities that the student must follow in each of the stages of problem solving.