Predictive Feature Generation and Selection Using Process Data From PISA Interactive Problem-Solving Items: An Application of Random Forests

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Zhuangzhuang Han¹  Qiwei He¹  Matthias von Davier² 

[1] Teachers College, Columbia University, United States;National Board of Medical Examiners, United States

关键词: process data;    interactive items;    feature generation;    feature selection;    random forests;    problem-solving;    PISA;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02461

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) introduced the measurement of problem-solving skills in the 2012 cycle. The items in this new domain employ scenario-based environments in terms of students interacting with computers. Process data collected from log files are a record of students’ interactions with the testing platform. This study suggests a two-stage approach for generating features from process data and selecting the features that predict students’ responses using a released problem-solving item—the Climate Control Task. The primary objectives of the study are (1) introducing an approach for generating features from the process data and using them to predict the response to this item, and (2) finding out which features have the most predictive value. To achieve these goals, a tree-based ensemble method, the random forest algorithm, is used to explore the association between response data and predictive features. Also, features can be ranked by importance in terms of predictive performance. This study can be considered as providing an alternative way to analyze process data having a pedagogical purpose.

【 授权许可】

CC BY