Learning-to-Solve-Problems.pdf

Solve Problems

An Instructional Design Guide

DAVID H. JONASSEN

Learning to

About This Book

Why is this topic important?

Learning to solve problems is perhaps the most important skill that students can acquire. In

professional contexts, people are paid to solve problems, not complete exams, and in every-

day life, we constantly solve problems. In All Life Is Problem Solving, Karl Popper argues that we

face problems, big and small, simple and complex, clear and confusing every day in our lives.

However, educators have largely ignored teaching how to learn to solve problems. This book

is about problem solving and seeks to address this issue.

What can you achieve with this book?

The purpose of this book is to illustrate how problems vary and how different teaching

methods can be used to match these various types of problems. The book is intended to raise

your awareness about the importance and the complexities of helping people to learn to solve

problems. By applying the instructional design methods described in this book to problems in

your own curriculum, you can help your learners become better problem solvers.

How is this book organized?

The book has eight chapters. Chapter One makes the case for treating problems differently by

describing different kinds of problems and how they vary. Chapter Two identiﬁes the compo-

nents of learning environments to support learning how to solve story problems, trou-

bleshooting problems, and case and system analysis problems. Chapter Three examines different

approaches to representing problems to learners, including problem posing, anchoring prob-

lems in macrocontexts, and case-based instruction. Chapter Four describes technology-based

tools for helping learners mentally represent problems for themselves, including semantic net-

works, causal modeling, inﬂuence diagrams, expert systems, and dynamic systems models.

Chapter Five addresses methods for associating different solutions to problems, including

worked examples, case libraries, and cognitive ﬂexibility hypertexts. Chapter Six looks at

methods for generating and testing hypotheses, including simulations and argumentation.

Chapter Seven discusses processes for reﬂecting on the problem-solving process: peer instruc-

tion, thinking-aloud pair problem solving, teachbacks, abstracted replays, and coding verbal

protocols. Finally, Chapter Eight tackles perhaps the most vexing issue: how to assess problem

solving. This ﬁnal chapter offers three approaches to assessing problem solving: performance

assessment, component skills, and argumentation.