Been a while since I had a hotpoint apart but when I did the element and thermostat switches were normally located at the front of the dryer and involved removing the front panel with the dryer laying on it's back.
Thermostat switches are normally closed switches until the desired temp is reached and then they become open so using a multimeter on the ohms range you will normally expect a low ohms reading close to 0.
The element is basically just a coil of wire and expect a reading of about 20 to 50 ohms. Obviously if the reading obtained is high then it is likely faulty.
sparky
January 2006