On supporting young students in visual logic modeling

Abstract

Logic reasoning presents notable difficulties for young children. This paper presents Logic Model Creator (LMC), a new environment that supports building and exploration of intuitive visual representation of logic models by young children. LMC logic models are structured as hypothesis, decision and/or counter decision components. These models are built using visual entities which represent the learning concepts of a specific domain. In this paper we focus on the architecture of LMC and the basic functionality of the environment. In particular we describe the the dynamic creation of equivalent logic models according to the so-called Reference Logic Model, constructed by the students' tutor. Furthermore an assessment module which provides immediate advice to the student in order to help them create a valid logic model is presented. Through experimentation it is demonstrated that the users of LMC can have rich interaction and assessment while exploring decision making logic constructs. © 2006 International Federation for Information Processing.