Methods and systems are provided for tutoring a student in solving a problem described in the form of a dialog with a student involving questions posed to the student and analysis of student responses. The method employs a student model for receiving and diagnosing student input and a tutorial model for deciding what new questions to plan to ask the student. The method comprises the following steps: receiving the diagnosis in a tutorial processing module; generating an agenda including at least one question; applying at least one tutorial strategy to the diagnosis; and, providing feedback to the student based on application of the tutorial strategy given the current context as indicated by the agenda data structure. In certain aspects of the method, at least one knowledge remediation dialog and/or at least one knowledge construction dialog can be applied to generate dialog between the tutor and the student. System embodiments are also provided that incorporate the functions of the methods for tutoring a student. In addition, in other embodiments, the present tutoring methods and systems are practiced in connection with instructions stored on a computer-readable medium.