Carnegie+Cognitive+Tutor

**Carnegie Cognitive Tutor**

**Content** The Carnegie Cognitive Tutor strategy is used to teach and reinforce math, specifically Algebra 1 skills.

**Grade Level** The Carnegie Cognitive Tutor strategy can be used for students in grades 9-12 with proper modifications depending on ability level.

**Curriculum Standards** For ninth grade students, this strategy uses the following CSO's:
 * M.O.A1.2.1 - formulate algebraic expressions for use in equations and inequalities that require planning to accurately model real-world problems
 * M.O.A1.2.3 - evaluate data provided, given a real-world situation, select an appropriate literal equation and solve for a needed variable
 * M.O.A1.2.9 - create and solve systems of linear equations graphically and numerically using the elimination method and the substitution method, given a real-world situation
 * M.O.A1.2.10 - simplify and evaluate algebraic expressions: add and subtract polynomials, multiply and divide binomials by binomials and monomials

**Description of Practices** The Carnegie Cognitive Tutor strategy is used parallel with the Carnegie Learning Curricula in high school Algebra 1 classrooms. This strategy promotes the students to develop cooperative learning skills, engage in investigations, and begin to think abstractly when solving problems and comparing solutions. The steps to implement the strategy are listed below:
 * 1) A specific topic is chosen from the Algebra curriculum such as linear equations or order of operations.
 * 2) The students are taught the material using the Carnegie Learning Curricula for three periods per week in the classroom. Through this curricula, the students engage in activities, quizzes, and learning.
 * 3) For the remaining two periods per week, the students go to a computer lab and use the Carnegie Cognitive Tutor software. Through this software, the students are able to gain further instruction and practice problems in order to reinforce the skills they have been working on during that particular week.

**Implementation Considerations** This strategy could be implemented in a general education, inclusion, or self-contained special education classroom setting. In a general education classroom setting, the instructor could go over a tutorial of how to use the program a few times through whole group instruction and then allow the students to work independently or in pairs to complete the desired tasks. In a special education self-contained setting, the instructor would have to work one-on-one with the students in order to help them complete the desired tasks. Depending on ability level, the instructor could also use this using a projector through whole class discussion so that the teacher could provide assistance in any means possible to students who are struggling.

**Example** The following example is showing a tutorial of how to use the Carnegie Cognitive Tutor program. The instructor is explaining how to use this program based on the topic of linear patterns. > **Citation** From The What Works Clearing House Website:
 * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF0hoEqv9Q0
 * http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/intervention_reports/wwc_cogtutor_083110.pdf

Additional: Cabalo, J. V., Jaciw, A., & Vu, M. T. (2007). Comparative effectiveness of carnegie learning's cognitive tutor algebra 1 curriculum: A report of a randomized experiment in the Maui school district. //Empirical Educaction Inc//, Palo Alto, CA.