A cognitive psychologist, Schwartz’s academic focus is to understand how people learn and how to create improved learning environments. He employs various research methods and tools including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain research, mathematical modeling, classroom data, and teaching technologies. His Teachable Agent computer character helps students learn by teaching, and in fact learn more and spend more time in learning activities.
“There was a meeting with my colleagues where we were deciding on a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation, and a lot of people were proposing to make technologies that were smart and could teach kids. And I remember saying, ‘Hey, why don’t we make it so that kids teach the computer – and that way they can learn by teaching?’”
Schwartz plans to use the ₣1 million Swiss franc ($1.08M US) prize from the award to extend his research on teachable agents that support learning to reason between data and claims. “The current work will create a highly usable and scalable TA with an underlying intelligence architecture that can be leveraged broadly,” Schwartz said.
Schwartz began his career in education teaching in challenging classroom settings. He taught math at a day school in rural Kenya, English in a south-central junior high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and math, science, reading and language arts to junior high and high school students in the rural village of Kaltag, Alaska.