The potential of individualization to transform learning that new technology makes possible has generated wide interest. We ask here whether individualization has been exploited to its maximum advantage. We explore its potential to provide individualized scaffolding at the meta-level of students’ reflection on their own thinking as they engaged in inquiry activity to support their reasoning about a multivariable causal system – a capability central to scientific thinking and higher-order thinking more broadly. In Study 1, middle-school pairs’ self-paced inquiry was individually guided by an adult who prompted them to question their assertions and strategies. Study 2 investigated how such scaffolding might be automated to provide individualization at scale. Delayed posttests for both studies involving new scenarios showed that gains in both inquiry and multivariable causal inference skills transferred to new content. Delayed far-transfer assessments showed that the intervention achieved its learning goals most effectively when an adult worked with a pair of students, compared to students working as a whole class (Study 1); students also learned effectively with an automated agent, but only when a human adult was also involved (Study 2). Implications are considered for developing and deploying technology that individualizes and supports self-directed, reflective meta-level thinking and learning, while remaining mindful of human social context.

个性化改变新技术使学习成为可能的潜力引起了广泛的兴趣。我们在这里询问个性化是否已被利用到其最大优势。我们探索其潜力，在学生进行探究活动以支持他们对多元因果系统的推理时，在学生对自己思想的思考的元层面上提供个性化支架，这是更广泛的科学思维和高阶思维的能力。在研究1中，一对中学生对自己的进度进行自我询问的过程是由一个成年人单独指导的，这促使他们对自己的主张和策略提出质疑。研究2研究了如何自动进行这种脚手架以提供个性化的规模。两项涉及新场景的研究的延后测验表明，探究和多因果推理技能的增长都转移到了新内容上。延迟的远距离转移评估表明，与全班工作的学生相比，当成年人与一对学生一起工作时，干预最有效地实现了其学习目标（研究1）；学生还可以通过自动代理有效地学习，但前提是也要有成人参与（研究2）。在开发和部署能够个性化和支持自我指导的，反思性的元层次思考和学习的技术的同时，还要保持对人类社会环境的关注，这被认为具有暗示意义。延迟的远距离转移评估表明，与全班工作的学生相比，当成年人与一对学生一起工作时，干预最有效地实现了其学习目标（研究1）；学生还可以通过自动代理有效地学习，但前提是也要有成人参与（研究2）。在开发和部署能够个性化和支持自我指导的，反思性的元层次思考和学习的技术的同时，还要保持对人类社会环境的关注，这被认为具有暗示意义。延迟的远距离转移评估表明，与全班工作的学生相比，当成年人与一对学生一起工作时，干预最有效地实现了其学习目标（研究1）；学生还可以通过自动代理有效地学习，但前提是也要有成人参与（研究2）。在开发和部署能够个性化和支持自我指导的，反思性的元层次思考和学习的技术的同时，还要保持对人类社会环境的关注，这被认为具有暗示意义。