N.T. Nguyen et al. (Eds.): IEA/AIE 2008, LNAI 5027, pp. 331–336, 2008. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008 Pedagogical Protocols Selection Automatic Assistance Paola Britos, Zulma Cataldi, Enrique Sierra, and Ramón García-Martínez Software & Knowledge Engineering Center. Buenos Aires Institute of Technology PhD on Computer Science Program. School of Computer Science. University of La Plata Intelligent Systems Laboratory. School of Engineering. University of Buenos Aires Educational Informatics Laboratory. School of Engineering. University of Buenos Aires Intelligent Systems in Engineering Group. School of Engineering. University of Comahue rgm@itba.edu.ar Abstract. The preliminary results presented in this paper corresponds to a re- search project oriented to the search of the relationship between the predilection of students concerning learning style and the pedagogical protocols used by the human tutors (professors during the first courses of the Computer Engineering undergraduate Program) by using intelligent systems tools. 1 Introduction In the tutor module of an intelligent tutoring system, the main sub module contains the pedagogical protocols, which are made up of two basic components: the profile analyzer and the database of pedagogical protocols available in the system. The sys- tem has a database of pedagogical protocols [Salgueiro et al., 2005]. Its use will be subordinated to the availability of the contents in the knowledge module, although the lesson always can be generated for some of the available protocols. In order to collect data about the way in which each student learns lists of learning styles will be used as well as tools for data collection. Beginning with the provided information by each student [Felder, 1988; Figueroa, 2003], his or her learning style will be determined. Afterwards, in a second step, the learning style will be linked to the pedagogical pro- tocol. The Felder [1988] list is a validated tool that allows obtaining solid data from students. After giving a questionnaire to the students, we will try to get data records on different sets by using the intelligent systems based tools (such as SOM and TDIDT) in order to obtain a relationship between the preferences of the students and pedagogical protocols. From a statistically significant sample of students for which the lists of complete learning styles had been taken, we will try to see if the learning styles can be grouped according to the education techniques or pedagogical protocols. This will allow correlating the preference of the student with the most suitable peda- gogical protocol in the system. As the selection of the pedagogical protocol is one of the elements to determine, it is desired to group the students in families with common characteristics. Therefore the research presented is oriented towards the search of the relationship between the predilection of students concerning learning style and the pedagogical protocols used by the human tutors (professors).