ProductiveMath: A Generative-AI-Powered App to Support Productive Failure Teaching

Seyedahmad Rahimi, Deniz Ercan, Ran Gao, Salah Esmaeiligoujar, Maryam Babaee, Hongming Li, Shan Zhang, Seiyon Lee, Avery Closser, Anthony Botelho

Artificial Intelligence in Education. Posters and Late Breaking Results, Workshops and Tutorials, Industry and Innovation Tracks, Practitioners, Doctoral Consortium, Blue Sky, and WideAIED, Vol. 2591, pp. 344–351 · 2025

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Abstract

Productive Failure (PF) engages students in problem-solving before instruction but designing effective PF problems is challenging. To address this, we developed ProductiveMath , an AI-powered tool to support teachers in generating PF problems. Across three studies, we explored five research questions related to problem quality, AI-generation, assessment accuracy, and teacher perceptions. In Study 1, we conducted a literature review to define high-quality PF problems, created a rubric, and used GPT-4o to generate and evaluate 30 problems alongside human raters. Study 2 replicated this process with 60 additional problems, showing strong correlations between AI and human ratings, confirming GPT-4o’s capability to produce high-quality problems. In Study 3, seven math teachers evaluated human- and AI-generated problems through surveys and interviews. They rated AI-generated algebra problems as high-quality, reported positive perceptions of ProductiveMath ’s usability, and expressed intentions to use it. Key teacher feedback included suggestions to adjust problem difficulty, simplify text, enhance visuals, and provide additional PF support.

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APA

Rahimi, S., Ercan, D., Gao, R., Esmaeiligoujar, S., Babaee, M., Li, H., Zhang, S., Lee, S., Closser, A., & Botelho, A. (2025). ProductiveMath: A Generative-AI-Powered App to Support Productive Failure Teaching. In Artificial Intelligence in Education. Posters and Late Breaking Results, Workshops and Tutorials, Industry and Innovation Tracks, Practitioners, Doctoral Consortium, Blue Sky, and WideAIED (Vol. 2591, pp. 344–351). Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-99264-3_43

BibTeX
@inproceedings{rahimi2025productivemath,
  author = {Rahimi, Seyedahmad and Ercan, Deniz and Gao, Ran and Esmaeiligoujar, Salah and Babaee, Maryam and Li, Hongming and Zhang, Shan and Lee, Seiyon and Closser, Avery and Botelho, Anthony},
  title = {ProductiveMath: A Generative-AI-Powered App to Support Productive Failure Teaching},
  booktitle = {Artificial Intelligence in Education. Posters and Late Breaking Results, Workshops and Tutorials, Industry and Innovation Tracks, Practitioners, Doctoral Consortium, Blue Sky, and WideAIED},
  year = {2025},
  volume = {2591},
  pages = {344--351},
  publisher = {Springer Nature Switzerland},
  doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-99264-3_43},
  url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-99264-3_43}
}

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