This paper dealt with the use of classroom observation data for formative evaluation purposes, and with a research project in which scores based on observed performance of teachers in secondary school algebra and English classes were compared with efficiency scores based on an input-output model. The model, using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)…

Research on intelligent tutoring seeks to develop systems for automating education and to explore epistemological issues concerning the nature of the knowledge presented by tutors and how that knowledge can be learned. The ACT theory of skill acquisition and its successor (PUPS--PenUltimate Production System) provides production-system models of…

Previous studies were conducted with 14- to 15-year-old students on the nature of the processes they used to solve tasks given the incorrect/buggy/mal-rules. The computer-based Leeds Modelling System (LMS) was implemented and a database of examples, correct and incorrect, or mal-rules had been established which was sufficient to diagnose the…

A group of 24 14-year-old students were presented with sets of algebra tasks using the Leeds Modelling System (LMS), a computer-based modeling system. Four months later, these same students were given a paper-and-pencil test which covered comparable tasks set by LMS. In addition, certain students were given detailed diagnostic interviews. A…

This paper reports the results obtained with a group of 24 14-year-old students when presented with a set of algebra tasks by the Leeds Modelling System (LMS). These same students were given a comparable paper-and-pencil test and detailed interviews some 4 months later. The latter studies uncovered several kinds of student misunderstanding that…

This paper discusses the overall design of the PIXIE Intelligent Tutoring System, and more specifically a series of recent enhancements. The original system has been implemented to involve three separate phases: the offline, or model generation phase; the online, or tutoring, phase; and the analysis phase. The offline phase, which is completed…

Six studies discussed in this paper compared error-specific or model-based remediation (MBR) with reteaching in algebra. MBR points out, and highlights as incorrect, errors specific to the student's solution before reteaching the correct procedures. Reteaching shows the student the correct procedure without addressing specific errors. Three of…

This paper provides an overview of the four major aspects of the PIXIE Intelligent Tutoring System: the field work undertaken to determine how teachers diagnose and remediate in introductory algebra; the set of experiments run to determine the relative effectiveness of Model-Based-Remediation (MBR) and Reteaching; systems work carried out to…

This paper presents a critical review of computer assisted instruction (CAI); an overview of recent intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs), including current perceived shortcomings; major activities of the field, i.e., analysis of teaching/learning processes, and extending and developing artificial intelligence techniques for use in intelligent…

The Corrective Feedback Paradigm (CFP), a computer-based instruction model, addresses the problem of inefficient sequencing of items in a set to be learned by suggesting the use of an increasing ratio review schedule for presenting drill items. With this system, items answered correctly are either removed from the list entirely or replaced at the…

The implementation of the program used in this study, TPIXIE, was predicated on the assumption that acquiring the skill to diagnose student errors was important for teacher trainees. The TPIXIE system (part of the PIXIE family of intelligent tutoring systems) was designed to present users with a series of task-student-answer pairs (where the…

Diagnoses of students' performance on procedural mathematical tasks need to display a certain level of stability and robustness if they are to be used as the basis for remediation, particularly with computer-delivered instruction. The purpose of this study was to compare two diagnostic approaches for describing students' (n=231) errors in algebra…