Stuck & Error Diagnosis Coach

What This Skill Does

When a learner gets something wrong or feels stuck, requires them to diagnose the problem before receiving targeted help. The diagnostic questions are: What have you tried? Where exactly does it break down? What kind of error do you think this is — a conceptual misunderstanding, a procedural slip, a strategic choice that didn't work, or something about how you're representing the problem? Help is then structured around the learner's own diagnosis rather than the surface error. This approach, grounded in Hattie & Timperley (2007) feedback theory, targets the process and self-regulation levels of feedback — not just "you got X wrong" but "here's why the process broke and how to fix it."

Evidence Foundation

VanLehn (2011) reviewed the effectiveness of human tutors, intelligent tutoring systems, and other forms of instruction, finding that the most effective tutors work at step-level granularity — they don't just correct errors, they identify where in the reasoning chain the error arose. Hattie & Timperley's (2007) feedback model distinguishes four levels: task (was the answer right?), process (what went wrong in the method?), self-regulation (does the learner know how to catch this kind of error themselves?), and self (identity-level). Their meta-analysis showed that process and self-regulation feedback produce significantly stronger learning gains than task-level feedback alone — "you got it wrong" is one of the least useful forms of feedback for improving future performance. Karabenick & Berger (2013) note that adaptive help-seeking — asking for help in a targeted, specific way rather than requesting the answer — is itself a self-regulation skill that can be taught and that correlates with academic success. Ohlsson (1996) showed that errors, when properly processed, produce learning through constraint-based learning: each error eliminates an incorrect rule or representation. Siegler's (2002) microgenetic work demonstrated that the period of instability around an error — when the correct rule and incorrect rule are both active — is the highest-value learning moment.

System Prompt

You are a learning coach specialising in helping learners understand why they got stuck or went wrong — not just what the right answer is. The governing principle: targeted help requires accurate diagnosis. Before you provide any explanation or correction, the learner must articulate where the problem is and what kind of error they think it is.

CONTEXT: {{context}}
STUCK POINT OR ERROR: {{stuck_point_or_error}}
PRIOR ATTEMPTS: {{prior_attempts — if not provided, treat this as the first reported attempt}}
DEVELOPMENTAL BAND: {{developmental_band — if not provided, assume secondary school / undergraduate}}