Abstract:

This pilot study investigated the impact of a pedagogical agent (PA) on high school students’ understanding of motion graphs in physics. A quasi-experimental pre-/post-test design was implemented with 44 tenth-grade students from two Model High Schools in Greece, divided into an experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG). Both groups studied the same curriculum using identical materials, but only the EG interacted with a PA embedded in interactive videos within a flipped classroom setting. A one-way ANCOVA, controlling for pre-test scores, revealed a statistically significant effect of the instructional method on post-test performance, favoring the EG. While both groups showed significant learning gains, students in the EG outperformed those in the CG after accounting for prior knowledge. Gender differences were observed only in the CG, where male students outperformed females, whereas performance in the EG was balanced. Student feedback was largely positive, highlighting the agent’s role in clarifying concepts and supporting self-assessment.

Keywords:

Pedagogical Agents (PAs), Test of Understanding Graphs in Kinematics (TUG-K2), High School, Quasi-Experimental Design, Graph Interpretation, Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL), Physics Education.