Albacete, P. L., & VanLehn, K. (2000). The conceptual helper: An intelligent tutoring system for teaching fundamental physics concepts. In G. Gauthier, C. Frasson, K. VanLehn (Eds.), Intelligent Tutoring Systems: 5th International Conference (pp. 564-573). Berlin: Springer-Verlag Berlin & Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K.
This paper describes an
intelligent tutoring system designed to help students solve physics
problems of a qualitative
nature. The tutor uses a unique cognitive based approach to
teaching physics, which
presents innovations in three areas. 1) The teaching strategy,
which focuses on teaching
links among the concepts of the domain that are essential for
conceptual understanding
yet are seldom learned by the students. 2) The manner in which
the knowledge is taught,
which is based on a combination of effective human tutoring
techniques, successful pedagogical
methods, and less cognitively demanding approaches.
3) The way in which
misconceptions are handled. The tutor was implemented using the
model-tracing paradigm and
uses probabilistic assessment to guide the remediation.
Some preliminary results
of the evaluation of the system are also presented.