Agent "Athena": Enabling Project-Based Learning in Resource-Constrained Greek Schools

This study addresses the "Scaffolding Paradox" in the Greek educational system, where the implementation of resource-intensive Project-Based Learning (PBL) fails in under-resourced rural and island schools. The research investigated if a Pedagogical Agent (PA) with a culturally-relevant persona, "Athena," could provide the necessary scaffolding to bridge this gap. A 6-week, mixed-methods, quasi-experimental study was conducted with 42 5th-grade students from two resource-constrained schools. The Intervention Group (IG) used the "Athena" PA, while the Control Group (CG) received traditional PBL instruction. Quantitative analysis (ANCOVA) showed the IG produced significantly higher quality PBL products (p < .001) and reported significantly higher cognitive engagement (p = .003). Qualitative findings revealed students perceived "Athena" positively across the four key persona dimensions: "credible," "instructor-like," "engaging," and "person-like". The PA successfully managed the procedural workload, transforming the IG teacher’s role from a stressed manager to a pedagogical "facilitator", while the CG teacher reported "chaos". The study concludes that a well-designed PA can resolve the scaffolding paradox, making PBL viable in low-resource environments.