Tomohiro Nagashima on the Henriette Herz Fellowship, LaLa Lab, and AI in Education

Prof. Dr. Tomohiro Nagashima, Junior Professor of Technology-Enhanced Learning. Photo: Private

How do we create AI systems that facilitate learning rather than dictating it?

Meet Saarland University’s LaLa Lab. Directed by Professor Tomohiro Nagashima, LaLa Lab explores how we learn, how AI can improve learning, and how to make sure learners keep their agency in a society where automated learning is starting to become the status quo. To achieve this, the lab stands at the intersection of human-computer Interaction, the learning sciences, cognitive science, and psychology.

As one of Saarland University’s recently selected Henriette Herz Scouts, Professor Nagashima has been preparing to welcome three international Humboldt Research Fellows. In this interview, he shares his vision for the fellowship, criteria he seeks in applicants, the role of diversity and interdisciplinarity in the field of learning sciences, and the future directions of LaLa Lab.

Could you briefly introduce LaLa Lab and its activities?

“Happy to do so! We’re still a young research group, small but growing at a fast pace. I’m starting my fourth year at the university. LaLa Lab (Learning to Adapt, Learning with Agency Lab) is highly interdisciplinary in its approach and outcomes – that is, both our methodological approaches and publication venues. We use advanced technologies, such as AI-based tutoring systems, to understand how people learn in complex ways. At the same time, we use these technologies to empower learners so that they can learn with agency and adaptively.

Our project AlgeSPACE is designed to help high school students strategically decide which solution approaches they should use for solving systems of equations. At the same time, we collect various types of data to see how exactly human learning happens. This includes student interactions with the system, pre- and post-activity measures to see if students learn by using the system, and qualitative insights such as interviews and think-aloud responses to deeply investigate their experience with the system. 

 

For example, in our Mindful Math project, we also measure how a mindful, LLM-based conversation experience with our virtual fox agent can help students reduce their math anxiety while supporting their learning. 

 

To conduct research that is meaningful for both researchers and practitioners, we work very closely with school students, teachers, administrators, and parents in Saarland and beyond, also internationally in North America and Asia. Together, we co-design technologies that serve not only our research purposes but also teachers and students in real classrooms. Technologies like AlgeSPACE are freely and openly available, and have been used in everyday teaching activities.”

Could you share a bit about your vision or plans for bringing fellows into LaLa Lab over the next couple of years through this Humboldt Research Fellowship?

“When I applied for this opportunity to become a Henriette Herz Scout, I was hoping to make our lab even more interdisciplinary. We are already quite diverse — with students from computer science, educational technology, psychology, and even cultural studies — but I wanted to boost this strength further.

I plan to bring in three postdocs in the next few years, each with a different expertise. Since I work at the intersection of the learning sciences, human-computer interaction, and psychology/cognitive science, my idea is to select fellows from each of these disciplines to strengthen our approach, so they can also learn from each other and gain new skills from other disciplines in the lab.” 

What do you think separates the Humboldt Research Fellows, recruited through Henriette Herz Scouts, from other postdoc opportunities for international postdocs?

“One thing that I am committed to is giving the fellows a sense of what a PI’s job looks like. A particularly generous aspect of this program is that they get their own research funding of approximately 20,000 euros. My plan is to let them use this funding to simulate the experience of having a ‚mini‘ lab within our lab.

They can decide what they want to do: have their own projects, decide who to hire, do recruiting and interviewing, figure out how to allocate their resources to run a project effectively… All this decision-making is something that regular postdocs wouldn’t necessarily get to experience. That’s one of the biggest opportunities I see. After two years, I hope that the three fellows will feel ready to lead their own labs with the skills they gained.” 

How do you see the fellowship support the career paths of the fellows, in addition to their research? 

“The fellows will be experiencing the PI role in a risk-free environment, because I’m still responsible for all the decision-making in the end. Personally, I jumped from finishing my PhD to a professor position. There are a lot of things you learn as you go — and I think I would’ve liked to get management and leadership experience in a risk-free environment as a postdoc. This opportunity will familiarize them with the different types of decisions a PI has to make, supporting a smoother transition when they become a PI.” 

While you’re reviewing applications, what are some qualities you pay attention to in a candidate?

“There are several aspects. One thing that I want to ensure — which is also aligned with the fellowship — is bringing international talent to Germany, especially those who might not otherwise have had the opportunity to come here. I tried to share this job opportunity through various channels — mailing lists, social media, conferences, academic societies, and personal connections — to reach talented candidates around the world.

Our lab is already quite diverse, but as I mentioned, we want to boost this strength even further. I’m happy to see that I’m getting applications from all over the world. I’m very excited about the different perspectives they will bring — they’re trained in different education systems and have diverse cultural views, which are important for my field of study and for running a diverse and inclusive lab. 

In addition, to further expand our interdisciplinarity, I didn’t focus on just one expertise when I made a job ad for the first Humboldt Fellow position. I decided to target broader fields, so applicants could bring expertise in designing systems, understanding human behaviors, analyzing complex data, and/or technical implementations. I wanted to see what they might be able to bring in, and that’s something you can’t really know until you get the applications. That’s why I’m interviewing potential candidates from different fields — to decide who to accept in the first round and who to accept next — so they effectively complement each other in terms of disciplinary and interdisciplinary skills when they join.

Last but not least, I’ve also emphasized leadership and management potential during the interviews and in the job listing, which candidates particularly liked. I want to see if they can be independent in coming up with research ideas, doing management tasks or mentoring students. To assess this, I asked applicants for a cover letter outlining an independent project idea that they would like to lead and manage in the lab.”

Do you have any criteria other than publications/academic record that could mark someone as a strong candidate? Any particular skills or mindsets that you might find specifically valuable in a postdoc working in LaLa Lab?

“Although these decisions can be difficult to articulate, something I always ask in interviews is candidates‘ attitudes toward collaboration with people from different backgrounds. Since our lab collaborates across fields, it’s often necessary for candidates to be able to explain things from their background to someone who isn’t familiar with that concept. They need to communicate their work to people from design and technical backgrounds, as well as stakeholders in the community who may not know a lot about research. Doing community-based research in my field requires actively listening to others’ thoughts, effectively negotiating with people from different backgrounds and daily experiences, and finding solutions that satisfy all parties involved – this is very hard! 

In addition to this, I pay attention to their ability to mentor students and scaffold their learning, since supervision skills require time to develop and people have different mentoring styles. I want to know how they approach mentoring.” 

What kind of independence and freedom will fellows have when it comes to proposing and leading their own projects?

“In my lab, fellows can propose and work on their own projects based on their interests and research, as long as the project fits within the growth scope of the lab. The fellowship funding can be used for these independent projects, and I will be happy to help or compensate for anything the funding doesn’t cover, if needed. In addition to their own project,  I will also find an existing project where they can be integrated.

I think this is a nice opportunity; they can actually lead something independently while also becoming well integrated within the lab by getting involved in existing projects. This way, they learn how things are done here and meet the other lab members, while I can still provide guidance as they work on their own.”

What excites you most about welcoming new international researchers into LaLa Lab?

“Getting international people itself is very exciting. I come from Japan, but my training was in the USA, and now in Germany I see many advantages that people bring through their diverse training and cultural experiences. 

For example, the way we conduct design research with schools here is different from what I was used to in the USA. There are always new tactics and approaches to learn based on the cultural setting. Technologies are used in different ways across cultures. Teachers here have a different approach to research than their counterparts in the USA. These experiences give you a new perspective on how to adjust your approach to what’s in front of you.

At the same time, I want to learn from their experiences in other countries I’m less familiar with to see what other strategies we might be able to integrate in the lab. I think this will help the lab become more flexible and improve our approaches to conducting our work.”

What advice would you give to international researchers who might consider applying in the future?

“The hiring process is quite flexible. I can hire three postdocs over the next few years, with possible overlaps and different start dates. That’s why I’m planning to have another call sometime soon to bring in another person. 

One thing I can say is that our lab is growing not only in size but also in approach. As a lab, we’re trying to adapt our strategies to make sure we move in the right direction and build on existing work. So, future candidates may discover opportunities that are more relevant to them if they keep up with our work.

So, my advice: check my website and stay updated!”

What kind of projects and directions are you hoping to head in Lala Lab in the next few years?

“That’s a big question. In the lab, our work is organized around several pillars, and each of them has multiple sub-projects. For example, something we’re increasingly focusing on is how complex dynamic interactions happen between teachers, students, and AI systems used in classroom settings. There’s a lot of dynamic decision-making involved in the process.

This decision-making is hard to understand, but also very interesting to explore. One thing that we’re prioritizing is ensuring that the human stakeholders, like teachers and students, keep their agency while making decisions, since technologies with ‚accurate‘ models may attempt to detect the students’ emotional or cognitive state and make decisions for them (more AI control).

If that happens too much, sometimes it can take away important decision-making opportunities for students. Students might want to decide what topics to learn by themselves, instead of getting assigned one based on their previous performance. These types of decision-making opportunities help them become more metacognitive and self-regulated.

So that’s something we will discuss more in the future: how we can ensure that students and teachers control their own decision-making, and how to balance that control between AI systems and human stakeholders to use AI systems not only effectively but also ethically and sustainably.”

Editor’s note: The interviewee wishes to acknowledge the contributions of lab members Katharina Bonaventura, Mirella Hladký, Helene Nüttgens, Vera Rief, Mareike Silber, and Man “Echo” Su,  to the projects referenced.

Want to find out more about the research conducted in LaLa Lab? Visit their website.

Are you interested in creating ethical AI systems that support students? Are you an international researcher? Maybe you could be the next Henriette Herz fellow in one of Germany’s most interdisciplinary learning-science labs. Take a look at the application requirements.

Relevant pages:

Computer scientists at Saarland University develop customized learning software

Information about the Humboldt Research Fellowship

Editor:
Saarland Informatics Campus Team
Email: yagmur.akarsu@uni-saarland.de