Concept Equilibration Processes in Intelligent Tutoring Systems

This text is to be submitted as a doctorate thesis proposal at the Computer Science Course of Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Any comments/suggestions are welcome. The goal of the work is to build a computational representation for concept-learning processes in intelligent tutoring systems. The representation should allow evaluation, comparison and execution of the represented processes. Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Context At the present state-of-the-art in intelligent tutoring systems, it is easy to recognize the limitations of the traditional "paternalistic" style of tutoring action, where the initiative and control of the interaction are prerrogatives of the system [SEL 91]. The research in microworlds puts in evidence very rich educational potentialities of open and exploratory interaction styles for learning (styles where the initiative of the interaction is with the learner, which explores the materials in his own way). Nevertheless, there exist situations wher..