Instructor's Guide

 

Quizzes, Reflective Questions, and Activities

The following are the assignments embedded in the Problem Solving tutorial:

• Activity 1: What Is an Ill-Structured Problem?

• Activity 2: Determining the Real Problem

 

Relationship to Other iStudy Tutorials

This activity is the first step in most research methodologies. A typical research methodology can be described as:

• Identification of the Problem

• Data Collection

• Data Analysis

• Report Writing

• Review, Revision, and Publication of Findings

Therefore, it is recommended that instructors introduce this tutorial to students prior to any tutorials that deal with data collection and analysis, report writing, or the review, revision, and publication process.

 

Suggested In-Class Methods of Presentation

Lecture

• Explain the purpose of the session. Refer to the Purpose section for more detail.

• Explain general information about problem solving, including well-defined problems, ill-defined problems, and why problem solving is an important skill.

Discussion

• Provide examples of ill-structured problems. Instructors should provide several examples and invite students to cite some examples as well.

• Explain that determining the true problem is the most important step in problem solving.

• Break the students up into small (four-five person) groups. Provide each group with a problem, such as a current social issue. Each group should work with the provided problem to create a probable problem statement, listing why it is the problem and what will happen when the problem is solved as showed in Key Points listed below.

• Each group should present its findings to the class and be prepared to discuss them. Instructors can assess students' understanding of identification of the true problem at this point by observing how each group presents its findings and responds to questioning.

• OPTIONAL - Have students look in your local or college newspaper for examples of problems faced by students, the community, the state, the nation, or the world. Have them identify the true problem or problems.

Note : This is an excellent opportunity to utilize and reinforce the cooperative learning techniques from the Cooperative Learning tutorial.

[top of page]

Key Points

These points are covered in the iStudy module, but should be emphasized in any discussions.

• Steps in a problem solving process.

• Identifying the real problem.

• Separating symptoms from causes.

• Defining and analyzing the problem.

[top of page]

 

Assessment Criteria

Through observing both the group's and the individual's activities, the instructor may assess student performance. Assessment criteria are as follows (instructors supply the percentage weights):

 

Assessment Criteria

Where	Domain	Activities	%
iStudy Tutorial	Knowledge	The student can define the concept of problem solving by relating the science method to it.
iStudy Tutorial	Comprehension	The student can describe the reasons why problem solving skills are valuable by giving examples.
In-Class	Application	The student can determine the true problem in any problem solving situation by explaining why.
iStudy Tutorial	Analysis	The student can distinguish well-structured and ill-structured problems by comparing them with each other.

return to top | previous page | next page