Educational potentials in visually androgynous pedagogical agents

Abstract

We report a study on student's attitudes to a visually androgynous in comparison to a male and a female Teachable Agent (TA). Results were that overall the androgynous agent was preferred over the female and male agents. A visually androgynous agent does not embody categorical gender attributes. At the same time it does not have to be genderless but instead represent both maleness and femaleness so that students can chose for themselves. Androgyny, in this sense, is potentially a way to have femaleness and maleness represented, with corresponding educational benefits such as role modelling and identification, without risking negative reinforcement of gender stereotypes. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.