Abstract
This article reviews the 10-year history of tutor development based
on the advanced computer tutoring theory (J. R. Anderson, 1983, 1993).
We developed production system models in ACT of how students solved
problems in LISP, geometry, and algebra. Computer tutors were developed
around these cognitive models. Construction of these tutors was guided
by a set of eight principles loosely based on the ACT theory. Early
evaluations of these tutors usually, but not always, showed significant
achievement gains. Best case evaluations showed that students could
achieve at least the same level of proficiency as conventional instruction
in one third of the time. Empirical studies showed that students
were learning skills in production-rule units and that the best tutorial
interaction style was one in which the tutor provides immediate feedback,
consisting of short and directed error messages. The tutors appear
to work better if they present themselves to students as nonhuman
tools to assist learning rather than as emulations of human tutors.
Students working with these tutors display transfer to other environments
to the degree that they can map the tutor environment into the test
environment. These experiences have coalesced into a new system for
developing and deploying tutors. This system involves selecting a
problem-solving interface, constructing a curriculum under the guidance
of a domain expert, designing a cognitive model for solving problems
in that environment, building instruction around the productions
in that model, and deploying the tutor in the classroom. New tutors
are being built in this system to achieve the National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards for high-school mathematics
in an urban setting.
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