Commentary on: "toward Computer-Based Support of MetaCognitive Skills: A Computational Framework to Coach Self Explanation"

Abstract

This paper is a commentary on "Toward Computer-Based Support of Meta-Cognitive Skills: a Computational Framework to Coach Self-Explanation", by Cristina Conati and Kurt Vanlehn, published in the IJAED in 2000 (Conati and VanLehn 2010). This work was one of the first examples of Intelligent Learning Environments (ILE) that target activities beyond problem solving doing so by providing adaptive support to apply relevant domain independent meta-cognitive skills, as opposed to targeting domain-dependent knowledge. We provide an overview of the SE-Coach, the ILE presented in (Conati and Vanlehn 2000), in terms of underlying motivation, objectives, appeach and contibutions. This overview is followed by a discussion of subsequent developments in research on providing intelligent, student-adaptive support to meta-cognition, as well as of remaining open issues and avenues for future research.