Have learners develop their own problem-solving templates instead of replicating instructor templates¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

An implementable teaching activity: provide answers to sample problems so activity shifts from finding answers to developing valid solution processes, then refuse to hand out templates and instead support learners in producing and comparing their own. The article states the pedagogy promotes "developing the situated processes of problem solving rather than solely replicating the existing method of solving problems," which the authors contrast with apprenticeship limited to expert modeling and replication.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Instructor willingness to resist requests for ready-made templates and to facilitate comparison of learner-generated approaches

Constraints¶

• Described for hands-on chart-work problems analogous to a certification examination in an adult vocational course

Target Learners¶

• Adult vocational learners with prior workplace experience

Target Learning Goals¶

• Situated problem-solving methods, critical thinking, ownership of learning

Affordances¶

• Quasi Community Framework

Related Strategies¶

• Student-Generated Problems
• Teach students to intentionally choose from alternative algebraic strategies when solving problems, after they have procedural fluency
• Reasoning-Focused Instruction
• De-emphasize Answers, Emphasize Reasoning
• Provide feedback in the problem-solving phase to foster negative knowledge and multiple solution attempts

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Emad, G. R., & Roth, W.-M. (2016). Quasi-Communities: Rethinking Learning in Formal Adult and Vocational Education. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-016-9386-9