Towards an Epistemology of Intelligent Problem Solving Environments: The Hypothesis Testing Approach

The main purpose of intelligent problem solving environments (IPSEs) is to offer students the opportunity to acquire knowledge while working on a sequence of problems chosen from the domain. Up to now we have developed IPSEs for various curricula and applications (computer science, hydraulics, chemistry, economic simulation games and causal modeling). On the surface being very different all IPSEs follow a common design theory: the student should acquire knowledge by testing his own hypotheses. First we want to show that hypothesis testing plays a fundamental role in a cognitive science orientated theory of knowledge acquisition (ISP-DL-theory). This theory is the basis of our IPSEs. In a case study three IPSEs and their relationship to hypothesis testing are discussed. Then we define the concept of hypothesis testing in a logic framework. We describe knowledge acqusition events and learning effects. It is argued that knowledge acquisition stimulated by IPSEs is based fundamentally on selfexplaining the responses of the IPSE to the student's hypotheses.