A learning environment for externalizing procedural knowledge in problem solving: A preliminary trial for tutoring problem posing skills

Abstract

Problem posing is a challenging task for naive students. For problem posing, students must identify knowledge and procedures for solving problems. We suppose that understanding of procedural knowledge for problem solving enhances problem-posing activities. We developed a learning environment wherein students find and formally describe various types of procedural knowledge while problem-solving. The system comprises two modules: the knowledge editor and the problem-solving simulator. Students externalize a procedural knowledge set for solving crypt-arithmetic tasks using the knowledge editor. With the problem-solving simulator, they also simulate the behavior of the model comprising the knowledge set. The practice in class confirmed that two-thirds of the participants constructed reasonable models with our system. They appeared to succeed in identifying and externalizing procedural knowledge for solving a relatively complex arithmetic task.