Supporting Model Building

Samenvatting

Constructionism argues that learners should learn by articulating their ideas instead of being tutored. By building models, learners acquire knowledge. The articulation of knowledge forces learners to actively express, test, reflect upon, and adjust their conceptions. Qualitative reasoning (QR) is a language that provides computational accounts of human reasoning about the physical world, ranging from common sense ideas to the sophisticated knowledge of scientists and engineers.

This thesis is about how to create modelling environments based on QR technology that are suited for educational settings. In order to deploy QR in educational contexts, the existing software needs to be optimised for this purpose. Three extensions are proposed. First, specification components allow for model descriptions on a different level than the model building formalism itself. These components provide integrated sketching, behaviour envisioning, and early causal model articulation. Second, integrated simulation inspection is part of the model building process. A simulation inspection tool, capable of simulating and visualising the result of the simulation, is integrated into the model building environment. Finally, the modelling environment is equipped with different levels of support that scaffold the model building process. Intelligent support is provided to aid the modeler by providing reflections to the model, and communicating knowledge among the different components in the modelling environment.

An experimental evaluation and comparison of the newly created modelling environment and its predecessor shows significant results in that model builders evaluate the new environment more positively. Furthermore, the new environment seems to be more efficient.