This review introduces a series of researches of interactive learning environments for arithmetic based on analysis of learning content as a promising approach to realize advance learning and teaching activities on ICT infrastructure. In the content analysis, problems used in exercises are analyzed and modeled them with structural representation. Then, learning and teaching activities are designed based on the modeled problems. In this review, as concrete researches, structurization of calculation problems of fraction in order to diagnose erroneous answers is described as the first one. Then, a framework of structurization of arithmetical word problems and a function of problem explanation are reported. Moreover, several systems of problem-authoring and learning by problem-posing designed based on the framework are introduced.

In problem solving, some learners make mistake at understanding of problem, so this process can be considered as an important target of support. However, this understanding process tends to be unclear in usual practice, and it is difficult to see this process. For this difficulty, “Externalization” is taken as one of countermeasures.In this paper, we propose the concrete method to realize the environment for externalization at problem solving of mechanics of high school. Also, for this realization, we are designing and developing the computer system. Through experimental use of the system, we have confirmed that subjects could express their understanding with the system and they thought their activities on the system were useful for learning.

In the framework of kit-build concept map, (1) a goal map is prepared by a teacher, (2) parts of the map is generated by decomposing the goal map, and then, (3) a learner makes a map (a learner map) by combining the parts. Errors in the learner map are diagnosed by comparing with the goal map. In this research, we have investigated a way to support the learner to dissolve the errors. Based on the analysis of learner's map building behavior, we have proposed three kinds of hints for learners, that are, (I) the last concept centered building, (II) specific concept centered building, and (III) concept group centered building. We have implemented a function to generate these hints based on the learner's building history and conducted an evaluation of the function.

For learning science, it is important to understand various concepts and relations between them. Especially, it is essential to understand class structure. To understand class structure, learners are required to consider the meaning of classes, properties of them and super-subrelation between the classes. The consideration facilitates deep understanding in science. However, the learners only memorize the class structure without understanding. For example, junior high school students often memorize the class structure about plants in Biology. In order to let them consider the class structure, it is effective for them to construct the class structure by themselves. In this study, we use concept map to express the structure. When they construct the concept map including the class structure, they may fall into error. We develop a support environment which visualizes their error to revise the structure by themselves. We report the evaluation of the environment in junior high school.

This paper presents a method of estimating the level of difficulty for academic books using user reviews and the table of contents. Moreover, we build a simple user interface for recommender system based on difficulty level. As a choice of selecting academic books, the collaborative filtering has often been used for recommending them. However, the academic books selected by user preference are sometimes over user's knowledge resulting in wasting time and money. Hence, if we could know the difficulty level of the academic books which a user is browsing currently, the difficulty level available as meta data can be used for recommending them. Also, the difficulty level can be used as a parameter for selecting advanced books and for the user who gave up reading an academic book due to its difficulty.

In this paper, we propose a method for analyzing the relationship between learners' behavior, which can be observed from learners' video, and their comprehension level. First, we divide a lecture into several spans and in each span we conduct a questionnaire survey about subjective comprehension level of the learners and a quiz on the contents of the lecture. Since the questionnaire survey includes personal differences about their comprehension level and the results of the quizzes are affected by the difference of its difficulty level, these data cannot be used to evaluate the objective comprehension level. We introduce the Item Response Theory and correct these differences. At the same time, we watch the learners' video and sum up the frequency of the expressed behavior for each learner in the video. Then, we classify the learners into cluster based on the frequency of expressed behaviors and analyze the characteristics of the cluster based on the comprehension level in the cluster.

The authors hold the opinion that to acquire a skill for co-creating knowledge with others cooperatively, development of meta-cognitive skill is important, but to do so is not straightforward. Herein, we attempt to design thinking skill (particularly meta-cognitive skill) development curriculum for first year bachelor students based on the results obtained by two preceding studies we have performed so far for postgraduate education and those engaged with medical services. To deal effectively with new learning for first year bachelor students—“Thinking about thinking”—we designed a curriculum by which students are given knowledge co-creation program and thinking externally tool to devote attention to thinking process and to have bodily sensation of its meaning, and put it into practice. This paper describes learning model for thinking skill which is fundamental to appropriate curriculum designing and discusses design rationale of the curriculum conforming to it and usefulness of the learning program through examples of practice using thinking externally tool. Results show that the learning program developed in this study is useful for cultivating meta-cognitive skill of bachelor students.