Personalizing the use of educational mathematics applets to fit learners’ characteristics poses a great challenge. The present study adopted a unique approach by comparing personalization processes implemented by a machine to those implemented by a human teacher. Given the different affordances—the machine’s access to historical log file data, computation and automatization, and the teacher’s mathematical knowledge, pedagogical approach and personal acquaintance—the study hypothesized that different considerations would lead to different personalization and learning outcomes. Mathematical applets were assigned to 77 students in the 4th and 5th grades either by an expert teacher or by an algorithm. The assignment took place in a controlled setting in which the teacher was unaware which students were eventually assigned according to her recommendations. The teacher and the machine each recommended an ordered sequence of ten applets per student. The findings suggest that the teacher-assigned group outperformed the machine-assigned group among 5th graders when the applets were sequenced in increasing order of difficulty. In the 4th grade, only the machine recommended a sequence of increasing difficulty and both groups achieved equal performance. The study concludes that in the case of data-driven personalization processes, machines and teachers should learn from each other’s affordances and considerations.

个性化使用教育数学小程序以适应学习者的特征提出了巨大的挑战。本研究通过将机器实现的个性化过程与人类老师实现的个性化过程进行比较，采用了一种独特的方法。考虑到不同的能力（机器对历史日志文件数据的访问，计算和自动化以及老师的数学知识，教学方法和个人相识），该研究假设不同的考虑因素会导致不同的个性化和学习成果。通过专业老师或算法将数学小程序分配给4年级和5年级的77名学生。作业是在受控的环境中进行的，在该环境中，老师不知道最终根据她的建议分配了哪些学生。老师和机器每个建议按顺序排列每个学生十个小程序。研究结果表明，当按小顺序对Applet进行排序时，老师分配的组在五年级学生中的表现要好于机器分配的组。在四年级时，只有机器推荐增加难度的顺序，并且两组都达到了相同的性能。该研究得出的结论是，在数据驱动的个性化过程中，机器和教师应该学习彼此的能力和考虑因素。研究结果表明，当按小顺序对Applet进行排序时，老师分配的组在五年级学生中的表现要好于机器分配的组。在四年级时，只有机器推荐增加难度的顺序，并且两组都达到了相同的性能。该研究得出的结论是，在数据驱动的个性化过程中，机器和教师应该学习彼此的能力和考虑因素。研究结果表明，当按小顺序对Applet进行排序时，老师分配的组在五年级学生中的表现要好于机器分配的组。在四年级时，只有机器推荐增加难度的顺序，并且两组都达到了相同的性能。该研究得出的结论是，在数据驱动的个性化过程中，机器和教师应该学习彼此的能力和考虑因素。