Domain-independent error-based simulation for error-awareness and its preliminary evaluation

Abstract

Error-based Simulation (EBS) is a framework for assisting a learner to become aware of his errors. It makes a simulation based on his erroneous hypothesis to show what unreasonable phenomena would occur if his hypothesis were correct, which has been proved effective as counterexamples to cause cognitive conflict. In making EBS, it is necessary (1) to make a simulation by dealing with a set of inconsistent constraints because erroneous hypotheses often contradict the correct knowledge, and (2) to estimate the 'unreasonableness' of phenomena in a simulation because it must be recognized as 'unreasonable.' We previously proposed a technique (called 'Partial Constraint Analysis (PCA)') for making EBS based on any inconsistent simultaneous equations, and a set of domain-independent heuristics to estimate the 'unreasonableness' of physical phenomena. In this paper, we describe a prototype EBS-system implemented by using these, and show the results of preliminary test which verified the usefulness of our method. © 2008 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.