Quwei Ye · Book in preparation · Online companion

Problem Competency in the AI Era

Six-Loop Questioning, Inquiry-Based Learning, and Teaching Agents

How the book is organized

Problem competency is the ability to identify, frame, investigate, and respond to important problems. The book moves from individual questioning to projects, evidence, and the design of learning systems.

  1. Problem competency

    When AI can produce answers quickly, how do we decide what is worth asking?

  2. Six-Loop Questioning

    Start from a real situation and revise an initial question into one you can investigate.

  3. Problem-based and project-based learning

    Use PBL to structure inquiry and PjBL to organize collaboration, deliverables, and revision.

  4. Agents and evidence

    Delegate tasks in WorkBuddy, then review the sources, process, scope, and results.

  5. Advanced practice for educators

    Apply the method in courses and public workshops and use teaching agents to design tasks, rubrics, and review points.

01 · Questioning practice

Bring a real question to the Six-Loop exercise

Start with a question you encountered today. Move between Record, Think, Ask, Act, Review, and Transform as needed. Keep the original and revised questions and why they changed. After taking action, add the feedback to your record.

Open the Six-Loop exercise

02 · WorkBuddy starter exercise

Predict a hotel booking cancellation

Use eight simulated booking records to judge whether a new booking may be canceled. Make your own prediction, use WorkBuddy to check it, and explain what the evidence supports.

  1. Open the classroom exercise, select hotel case H1, and write down your prediction and reasoning.
  2. Paste the sample task into WorkBuddy and provide the classroom data. Review the plan before checking the calculations and deliverable.
  3. Return to the exercise to compare the program’s votes. For H3, predict before revealing the recorded outcome. Note whether your judgment changed and why.

Your review should include your initial prediction, the three neighbors and their votes, a comparison with the classroom result, and one limitation of the sample.

Explore the ABC Smart Hotel course

The hotel booking exercise is in Chinese. The full ABC Smart Hotel course includes both languages.

03 · Advanced practice for educators

AIP–TDA–MAS Problem Competency Lab

Students can use the project guide and experiments to frame problems, check evidence, and collaborate. Teachers can bring a course unit and review a draft integrating inquiry, project work, and SEL.

See its architecture and governance
Open the practice lab

PBL-002 · v1.0.0

Hotel booking cancellations: how do you choose when accuracy is tied?

Build on the one-booking KNN exercise with a separate set of fictional test bookings. Make predictions first, reveal the outcomes, and consider how missed cancellations and false alarms change your decision.

Fixed rules

  • Predict cancellation using only lead days, which are known at booking. A cancellation timestamp is unavailable then and would leak the outcome.
  • The training set H01–H08 comes from the original exercise. The separate test set T01–T08 is fixed. Keep its labels hidden until predictions are recorded and never use it to select parameters.
  • KNN uses k=3, absolute distance in lead days, training booking ID to break distance ties, and a majority vote.
  • The preset baseline predicts no cancellation for every booking. The training labels are evenly split.

Related book topics

Question design · Teacher in the loop · Multi-agent collaboration · Evidence of process

Predict before checking

  1. Work out T03 and T06 first. Record the three neighbors, labels, and prediction. Then predict all eight test bookings with both methods.
  2. Record the predictions before revealing the labels. Fill in TP, FP, TN, and FN. Compare accuracy, recall, and precision.
  3. Explain the costs of false alarms and missed cancellations. Define the purpose and decision criteria before evaluating on new independent data.
Review the single-booking KNN exercise

Training examples with labels

BookingLead daysActual label
H0120
H0240
H0371
H04100
H05161
H06201
H07240
H08281

Separate test bookings with labels hidden

BookingLead days
T013
T026
T038
T0410
T0512
T0617
T0722
T0827

1 = canceled, 0 = not canceled. All records are simulated.

Assign independent checks in WorkBuddy

Open WorkBuddy and select the configured Six-Loop collaboration team (六环成长协作团). Submit the task pack without test labels first. Record predictions, then provide the labeled JSON. If you have installed daily-compounding-sixloop, use it to capture your first question, why you chose a model, and what you need to verify next.

View the full task for copying
PBL-002 · v1.0.0
Hotel booking cancellations: how do you choose when accuracy is tied?
1 = canceled, 0 = not canceled. All records are simulated.
Predict cancellation using only lead days, which are known at booking. A cancellation timestamp is unavailable then and would leak the outcome.
The training set H01–H08 comes from the original exercise. The separate test set T01–T08 is fixed. Keep its labels hidden until predictions are recorded and never use it to select parameters.
KNN uses k=3, absolute distance in lead days, training booking ID to break distance ties, and a majority vote.
The preset baseline predicts no cancellation for every booking. The training labels are evenly split.

Training examples with labels
Booking, Lead days, Actual label
H01, 2, 0
H02, 4, 0
H03, 7, 1
H04, 10, 0
H05, 16, 1
H06, 20, 1
H07, 24, 0
H08, 28, 1

Separate test bookings with labels hidden
Booking, Lead days
T01, 3
T02, 6
T03, 8
T04, 10
T05, 12
T06, 17
T07, 22
T08, 27

Assign independent checks in WorkBuddy
Open WorkBuddy and select the configured Six-Loop collaboration team (六环成长协作团). Submit the task pack without test labels first. Record predictions, then provide the labeled JSON.
If you have installed daily-compounding-sixloop, use it to capture your first question, why you chose a model, and what you need to verify next.
1. Have the lead restate the problem, acceptance criteria, and assignments. The question coach describes the decision and the consequences of false alarms and missed cancellations.
2. Have the learning designer calculate both sets of predictions and return the predictions, neighbors, and method. The evidence reviewer independently checks the split, prediction time, and tie ordering. Wait for test labels until the predictions are recorded.
3. Once the labeled JSON arrives, have the evidence reviewer compute both confusion matrices and metrics from the saved predictions. Mark precision undefined when there are no predicted positives. Preserve the original predictions and k.
4. The lead keeps independent reports and disagreements for the teacher. Check leakage, split integrity, false alarms versus missed cancellations, the next evaluation, and the limits of simulated data.

https://www.treeye.cn/en/problem-competency#pbl-002
I recorded my predictions. Reveal labels and results.

TP counts correctly flagged cancellations, FP false alarms, TN correctly identified non-cancellations, and FN missed cancellations. Accuracy uses all bookings, recall uses actual cancellations, and precision uses predicted cancellations.

BookingLead daysActual labelThree neighbors (ID, distance, label)KNNAlways predict no cancellation
T0130H01 (1, 0), H02 (1, 0), H03 (4, 1)00
T0260H03 (1, 1), H02 (2, 0), H01 (4, 0)00
T0381H03 (1, 1), H04 (2, 0), H02 (4, 0)00
T04100H04 (0, 0), H03 (3, 1), H02 (6, 0)00
T05121H04 (2, 0), H05 (4, 1), H03 (5, 1)10
T06170H05 (1, 1), H06 (3, 1), H04 (7, 0)10
T07221H06 (2, 1), H07 (2, 0), H05 (6, 1)10
T08270H08 (1, 1), H07 (3, 0), H06 (7, 1)10
ModelTPFPTNFNAccuracyRecallPrecision
KNN22315/82/32/4
Always predict no cancellation00535/80/3Undefined (no predicted positives)

KNN flags more cancellations and produces more false alarms. For manual review, first decide how many false alarms staff can handle, then evaluate on fresh independent data. This exercise does not establish business impact.

Live Coze lesson-design sample

The Coze sample is disabled or unconfigured here. The data, calculations, and WorkBuddy task remain available.