| Intelligent tutoring systems have been proven to provide significant learning gains for
students in a variety of instructional domains. As one of the main goals of ITSs is to
support acquisition of problem-solving skills, it is not surprising that researchers devote
considerable effort to problem solving support. Existing ITSs are based on various
theories of learning, and consequently employ different strategies for supporting
problems solving. Some ITSs provide examples of solved problems to students, which
support analogical reasoning and transfer to novel problems. One of the most common
ways of supporting problem solving is to analyse students’ actions, and provide adequate
feedback. Although many ITSs provide feedback, there are numerous differences in how
that is done, ranging from the timing of feedback (immediate vs delayed), level of
abstraction and detail in feedback messages, selecting appropriate messages, phrasing
feedback etc. Additionally, many ITSs provide instructional material in various forms,
such as glossaries of domain concepts and adaptively generated multimedia. In order for
problem solving support to be effective, ITSs require domain and students models of high
quality, as well as well designed teaching strategies and materials. |