| Abstract: | Cognitive skills are concerned with analysis, interpretation and decision making required for performing procedural tasks. Since much of this process runs inside a human mind, the development of cognitive skill may largely rely on self-explanation as a mechanism for forming better procedures by clustering elementary operations and pushing them to the subconscious level. The paper describes possible categorisation of learning resources to match the different phases of skill acquisition. It discusses an implementation of a cognitive apprenticeship-based learning environment ‘Byzantium’ and an independent feedback on its use in real classroom. Its generic design philosophy is described, together with a commentary that places Byzantium in the tradition of Gordon Pask's adaptive teaching machines and conversational tutorial systems. |
