Agentic education · Learning science

Actionable companion · Learning design & outcomes

Learning with agency: An artificial intelligence method for comprehensive evaluation of preschool education quality

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide, separate from the original research. Proposed actions are not claims or recommendations attributed to the source authors. No independent peer review of this guide is asserted.

Evidence and context

Title and abstract screening; stage labels describe reported settings, not verified numerical ages. Design labels require full-text appraisal. Reported stage(s): Early childhood · preschool, Children · stage unspecified. Verify the participant population and task before transferring the findings.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the linked source license:

The evolution in the quality of teaching for preschool education is worth studying. In this article, we solved the qualitative problems in the comprehensive quality evaluation by suggesting a method of quantitative combination and establishing a set of indicators suitable for the comprehensive quality evaluation of students in the kindergarten. According to the experience summed up by previous scholars, the weight of each index is obtained by an analytic hierarchy process. This study analyzed the defects and causes of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation and the neural network model in the construction of early childhood and preschool education's comprehensive quality evaluation model and propose a Feedforward Neural Network (FNN) model. FNN combined with neural network (NN) and fuzzy logic characteristics introduces fuzzy concepts and fuzzy inference rules into neural networks of neurons, the connection power, and network learning. It improves the learning ability of NN and fuzzy evaluation of the power of expression and effectively exerts the advantages of fuzzy logic and neural network to make up for their shortcomings. However, the convergence speed is very slow. To solve this problem, the similarity measure was used to improve the number of hidden layer nodes of the network. The effectiveness and feasibility of the FNN improved hidden layer nodes are verified by an example so as to realize the automation of comprehensive quality evaluation.

What kind of evidence is this?

Supporting AI learning science · Qualitative / mixed methods

Stage: Early childhood · preschool; Children · stage unspecified. Screening labels describe reported context and study-design language. They are not a risk-of-bias rating or proof of effectiveness for an age band.

Limitations and uncertainty · source passage

According to the practice of promoting quality-oriented education in schools in China, the experience of other kindergarten administrators, and the advice of pedagogy experts, the abovementioned design principles and methods were adopted in this study, including the case analysis, literature review, questionnaire survey, and mutual evaluation methods. A set of index systems suitable for the comprehensive quality evaluation of students in preschool education kindergarten was established (introduced in Table 1. Due to space limitations, the index system and data collection standards are combined into one table).

Design the system before the pilot

Use this study to inform a learning mechanism or implementation question. It is not direct evidence that autonomous agents improve learning. Keep the proposed agent behavior separate from what the source actually tested.

  • Specify a measurable learning objective, a comparator and a task without tool assistance before adopting a system.

A 90-day district pilot

  1. Days 1–15 · Appraise. Have the curriculum lead and a teacher read the methods and limitations. Record the study design, sample, comparator, outcomes and evidence gaps. Define a local question that the study can help inform.
  2. Days 16–30 · Design. Use a brief adult-mediated story, turn-taking or language activity. An educator controls every interaction; the agent never becomes an unsupervised companion. Preserve hands-on play and human conversation. Name an accountable owner and set the baseline, success threshold and budget before implementation.
  3. Days 31–60 · Test. Start with a small voluntary cohort, preserve an accessible non-AI route and require teacher review. Use synthetic or de-identified examples; approve data handling and tool terms through district processes.
  4. Days 61–90 · Decide. Measure independent naming, explanation or turn-taking in a human-led activity after the tool is removed. Record frustration, overstimulation and the amount of adult help. Compare with baseline, document uncertainty and stop or revise if learning worsens, access is unequal or critical errors persist.

The board decision brief

Report the learning problem, evidence quality, participating population, total cost including review time, measured benefit, errors, access differences and remaining uncertainties. Make a dated recommendation to stop, revise or expand. A positive perception survey alone does not establish learning improvement.

Attribution and reuse

Peilin Niu. An artificial intelligence method for comprehensive evaluation of preschool education quality. Frontiers in Psychology (2022-07-28). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.955870

Companion prepared 2026-10-30. Original authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract is an attributed source extract; the implementation plan is new AI-assisted editorial material, offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license. This guide has not undergone independent peer review.