Novobo: Supporting Teachers' Peer Learning of Instructional Gestures by Teaching a Mentee AI-Agent Together

TL;DR

Novobo is an AI-agent designed to facilitate peer learning among teachers by encouraging reflection, demonstration, and shared understanding of instructional gestures through verbal and bodily interactions.

Contribution

This work introduces Novobo, an AI-agent that promotes collaborative peer learning of instructional gestures, advancing AI's role in teacher professional development.

Findings

Teachers shared tacit knowledge through conversation and movement.

Novobo promoted externalization and internalization of embodied knowledge.

The system fostered collaborative learning and shared understanding.

Abstract

Instructional gestures are essential for teaching, as they enhance communication and support student comprehension. However, existing training methods for developing these embodied skills can be time-consuming, isolating, or overly prescriptive. Research suggests that developing these tacit, experiential skills requires teachers' peer learning, where they learn from each other and build shared knowledge. This paper introduces Novobo, an apprentice AI-agent stimulating teachers' peer learning of instructional gestures through verbal and bodily inputs. Positioning the AI as a mentee employs the learning-by-teaching paradigm, aiming to promote deliberate reflection and active learning. Novobo encourages teachers to evaluate its generated gestures and invite them to provide demonstrations. An evaluation with 30 teachers in 10 collaborative sessions showed Novobo prompted teachers to share tacit knowledge through conversation and movement. This process helped teachers externalize, exchange, and internalize their embodied knowledge, promoting collaborative learning and building a shared understanding of instructional gestures within the local teaching community. This work advances understanding of how teachable AI agents can enhance collaborative learning in teacher professional development, offering valuable design insights for leveraging AI to promote the sharing and construction of embodied and practical knowledge.