ABSTRACT
The tutors’ overall goal is helping the student repair flaws in hisor her mental model of the baroreceptor reflex. The approachthat has been selected to accomplish this goal is to create a problem-solving environment in which the student is as active a participant in the solution as possible. The tutor accomplishes this goal by generating a dialogue with the student in which the tutor endeavors to help the student do as much of the work of solving a baroreceptor prediction problem, and in the process tries to repair any errors that were made. To accomplish these goals, the tutors must model the state of the student’s understanding in order to individualize their interactions with the student and to scaffold the problem-solving process for the student. In keeping the student as active as possible, they almost always choose to ask the student something rather than tell the student something.
