AbstractThis article centres on the educational requirement of encouraging the development of decision‐making skills, with particular reference to selection between alternatives. It reports the results of a protocol study in which subjects were asked to make a decision of the type described. These results, as well as information taken from the decision‐making literature, are used as a basis for defining the requirements of an Intelligent Educational System designed to encourage externalisation and reflection on decision processes and on the current decision. The architecture of the proposed system is outlined, and the current state of implementation described brie