As the range of models which tutoring systems can capture is extended, efficient diagnosis becomes more difficult. This thesis describes a solution to this problem based on the generation of 'Critical Problems'; their role in student modelling is analogous to that of the 'Crucial Experiment' in science. We argue that great diagnostic power can be obtained by generating discriminatory problem examples. In general, efficient diagnosis is just not possible without such an hypothesis-testing capability. We describe a program, PO, which given a pair of production rule models and a description of the class of problems which the student must solve, generates an abstract specification of the problems which discriminate between those two hypotheses. Through a process termed 'Abstract Interpretation', PO tips the balance in favour of diagnostic measurement. The key to this problem lies in the realisation that we are only interested in the abstract mapping between a model's inputs and outputs; from the point of view of generating a Critical Problem, the intermediate processing of the model is irrelevant.

In the history of Intelligent Tutoring Systems, SOPHIE (Brown, Burton, and Bell, 1974), now considered a classic, contained many important ideas and features. One of these was its natural language user interface. Today, the trend has moved away from natural language interfaces towards graphical ones although the argument in favour of natural language user interfaces, both from Human Computer Interaction and natural language researchers, still persist. Is this argument correct? This thesis explores this question by investigating how SOPHIE might be re-implemented with a graphical direct manipulation interface instead of a natural language one, with the goal of improving its standard of usability. It begins by analysing the features that seem to have been central to SOPHIE's usability. These, it argues, were not so much an ability to accept well formed complete English sentences, as an ability to accept and interpret correctly a wide range of abbreviated inputs. Two models of interaction, Circuit 1, a pilot, and Circuit II, a fairly full implementation of SOPHIE were implemented and tested. Both employ free-order syntax that allows users to specify the components of a full command in any order. The combination of deixis and free-order syntax supported allows completely general ellipsis which achieves, in extended interaction sequences, the same economy and naturalness that SOPHIE achieved through its use of anaphora and ellipsis. Whilst the free-order syntax. technique is little used at present in user interfaces, the results of observational studies conducted have shown that it saves users time and convenience. Thus, considering key linguistic features of a natural language user interface has shown how novel features can enhance the usability of direct manipulation interfaces. This thesis argues that user interfaces can be improved by employing structures found in natural language or at least conversation which can be constructed within direct manipulation interface styles. This approach was further expanded to support topic shifts between different circuit contexts. Circuit II, like SOPHIE, supports three different topics: normal circuit behaviour, a circuit with an unknown fault, and circuits with user-hypothesised faults. Drawing on Reichman's (1981) work, Circuit II uses natural language cue phrases of the type "by the way", re-implemented in the direct manipulation style, to facilitate shifts between topics in a smoother and more natural way than SOPHIE which , used clumsy explicit commands.

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The dissertation describes the state of private tutoring, its extent and intensity of use during the second stage of basic school, in particular in the last two years. The study is a part of more extensive research into the phenomenon of private tutoring in the Czech Republic, and its results supplement information on the use of private tutoring in primary schools. This dissertation provides an analysis of the use of private tutoring during the second stage of basic schools in the Central Bohemian and Ústí nad Labem regions. The aim is 1) to characterize a student's using private tutoring, in particular individual lessons or group courses (family background, school success, study ambitions, views on private tutoring, etc.), 2) to describe selected types of private tutoring (use rate, subjects, providers, etc.). This consists of quantitative research using a questionnaire survey of 9th grade students from randomly selected primary schools in the Central Bohemian and Ústí nad Labem regions (n = 1 016). The students are at the point between lower and upper secondary education, and they are focusing on the transfer to a upper secondary school, and many of them have to take an entrance exam. These two regions were selected because of their socio-economic differences. The results of the survey confirm...

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Individual tutoring has been successful in facilitating learning in domains such as LISP, physics, and algebra. These tasks are static in that problems do not change while the student is trying to solve them. Dynamic tasks such as flying, where the problem changes spontaneously over time, represent different challenges for tutors. To understand tutoring in dynamic tasks, we conducted a field observation of students being given messages by a flight instructor. Five low flight time student pilots were asked to perform nine instrument flight tasks while being tutored by an instructor pilot in both a virtual simulator flight and in a real airplane flight. The data from our study were compared to two prominent models of one-on-one tutoring. Only a small portion of the utterances made by the tutor or by the student matched previous accounts, suggesting that a new approach is needed to address tutoring during instrument flight instruction.

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of peer tutoring on the achievement of freshmen student in remedial mathematics, reading and writing from one community college and one university. The total population for this study is 300 freshmen, 150 freshmen from the community college and 150 freshmen from the university, composition of male (N=42%) and female (N=58%). The instructors will allow the researcher to pre-test selected students on the second day of class (Fall 2006) using the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (Form E) for reading, Algebra Skills Test (Test I) for math, and pre-determined writing assignments for writing. After four weeks of peer-tutoring (quasi-experimental group), the researcher will retest the students (post-test) and collect the test score from the posttest and analyze the data to determine the impact of peer tutoring on freshmen student in remedial mathematics, reading and writing. There were two hypothesis tested. The hypothesis revealed that there was no significant difference of t-test results for pretest scores in terms of Reading for Comprehensive and Vocabulary, Math, and English. It indicated that participants grouped by gender had no pretest threat in both the treatment and the control groups. Although the present study offers additional positive results to those studies conducted in the past, it is the recommendation of the researcher that additional studies needs to be undertaken.

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The purpose of this qualitative multi-case study was to explore the nature of the impact that a tutoring program, which featured preservice teachers as tutors, had on participating fifth grade at-risk students’ literacy behaviors in the classroom.The researcher served in the role of passive participant observer during the scheduled language arts period three days per week in the participating students’ classroom for a period of twenty-three weeks. Field notes were made in the classroom and coded, and audio tapes were recorded and transcribed of the tutoring sessions. Formal and informal interviews with the teacher, tutors, and participating students were conducted, transcribed, and coded. Lesson plans and reflections developed and written by the tutors were gathered and coded. Observations indicated that there were four types of reading required on a daily basis in the classroom. Assigned readings made by the teacher included narrative and expository texts. Pleasure readings were materials chosen by the students, but at certain times were teacher initiated and at other times, student initiated. The four types of reading found in the classroom were mirrored by the tutoring sessions. Students observed in the classroom could be divided into two types and four categories. Those with positive attitudes were called eager readers. Eager readers were made up of good readers and struggling readers, who lacked some of the reading skills possessed by good readers. Reluctant readers were the second type and had either ambiguous or explicitly negative attitudes toward reading. The type of reader, together with the type of reading required, determined the success of the tutoring sessions. The results of the data analysis show that student motivation toward reading was a key factor in determining the success of the tutoring program. Two of the three student participants in the study reported learning skills in the tutoring program that they used in other contexts.