# Students' Perceived Roles, Opportunities, and Challenges of a Generative AI-powered Teachable Agent: A Case of Middle School Math Class

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.06721 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.06721/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 9 of its 76 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 26 Aug 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [PaLM-E: An Embodied Multimodal Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.03378/) (2023)
- [Gender bias and stereotypes in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.14921/) (2023)
- [Students' Voices on Generative AI: Perceptions, Benefits, and Challenges in Higher Education](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.00290/) (2023)
- [Teach AI How to Code: Using Large Language Models as Teachable Agents for Programming Education](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.14534/) (2023)
- [Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.11184/) (2019)
- [The AI Revolution in Education: Will AI Replace or Assist Teachers in Higher Education?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.01185/) (2023)
- [Generative AI in the Wild: Prospects, Challenges, and Strategies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.04101/) (2024)
- [Nebula Graph: An open source distributed graph database](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.07278/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Mentigo: An Intelligent Agent for Mentoring Students in the Creative Problem Solving Process](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14228/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Ongoing advancements in Generative AI (GenAI) have boosted the potential of applying long-standing learning-by-teaching practices in the form of a teachable agent (TA). Despite the recognized roles and opportunities of TAs, less is known about how GenAI could create synergy or introduce challenges in TAs and how students perceived the application of GenAI in TAs. This study explored middle school students perceived roles, benefits, and challenges of GenAI-powered TAs in an authentic mathematics classroom. Through classroom observation, focus-group interviews, and open-ended surveys of 108 sixth-grade students, we found that students expected the GenAI-powered TA to serve as a learning companion, facilitator, and collaborative problem-solver. Students also expressed the benefits and challenges of GenAI-powered TAs. This study provides implications for the design of educational AI and AI-assisted instruction.