The role of culture in learning is an underexplored area of research. Learners come with a variety of cultural backgrounds, belief systems, and perspectives. Research in education has shown that teaching methodologies and instructional design cannot always be universally applied as their impact can greatly vary from one culture to another. In other words, pedagogical strategies that are effective for one cultural group may not be effective with a different one. Researchers in the Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) community are beginning to address these issues by incorporating models of culture into their systems with goal of either adapting to learners' varying cultural backgrounds or by culturally-appropriate underlying teaching methodologies into their systems. Developing AIED systems with cultural discernment capabilities therefore – among other possibilities – may reduce misunderstanding and confusion that is derived from learner behaviour as well as allow for customized learning according to cultural needs. A greater cultural focus can also increase the flexibility of the systems we build and promote their acceptance and wider spread use.
Furthermore, in a world in which interactions between culturally diverse people and groups are becoming usual, developing models of cultural representation is a valuable undertaking. Not only is there an increasing need in the teaching process for the ability to address individuals and groups with respect to culture, there is a need to learn about culture itself in view of its rich and multi-faceted variability. AIED systems, enhanced with a capacity for simulating complex cultural situations, could have a profound impact on the format, design and quality of teaching they wish to impart.
A first edition of CATS took place in 2008 in conjunction with the Intelligent Tutoring Systems conference in Montreal, Canada. The aim of this workshop is to continue this trend in exploring the ways in which AIED systems can be used to both build cultural awareness into educational systems, as well as teach new cultures to learners. It also aims to stimulate discussion on the impact of culture on AIED systems and reflect on those emerging technologies that need to be developed to more fully integrate cultural considerations. Finally, it aims at sharing and expanding the very knowledge we have about culture.