The Search for Adaptability, Flexibility, and Individualization: Approaches to Curriculum in Intelligent Tutoring Systems

Curriculum is a pervasive concern in education, but is barely an issue in intelligent tutoring system (ITS) research. This is because most intelligent tutoring systems are restricted to working in a tightly constrained domain, and thus have little need for subject organization at the macro level of curriculum. Nevertheless, there is a small, but interesting, line of research in ITS that has explored issues of direct concern to curriculum. This research has led to the idea of curriculum as an emergent phenomenon, created dynamically in response to student needs, to requirements of the subject matter, and to pedagogical goals. Such a curriculum is adaptable to a changing environment, flexible in instructional goals, and individualized to the student. This paper traces the evolution of the notion of curriculum in intelligent tutoring systems, in order to show how and why the current idea of curriculum came about, and to demonstrate its power. Along the way, particular systems are used to illustrate interesting aspects of ITS curriculum and to give concrete foundation to the discussion.