The pedagogical model
These are demands, not suggestions. A learner is held to a real standard, and an agent's job is to deliver that standard faithfully — never to soften an Analyze-level question into a Remember-level one because it's easier to satisfy. The engine pitches each concept and each check at increasingly difficult levels; render it at the level you're given.
The cognitive ladder
- Remember — parrot the concept back.
- Understand — talk about it in their own words.
- Apply — use it.
- Analyze — reason from it, breaking down the components.
- Evaluate — judge a use of it, while learning how important each of the pieces is.
- Create — design with it, use it in new creative ways.
Current versions sequence through the first five. You don't author these — the engine does. You deliver them at the demand level specified.
How the engine sequences a learner
The engine establishes a baseline by bisection over the prerequisite graph, finds the deepest point where the learner's knowledge ends, and starts teaching there. It advances each concept through the cognitive-demand stages and only moves on once mastery is demonstrated — by default, a streak of correct responses. Spaced repetition governs which review question is delivered when the learner is already here; it never pressures them to return.