problem solving in schools

Why Every Educator Needs to Teach Problem-Solving Skills

Strong problem-solving skills will help students be more resilient and will increase their academic and career success .

Want to learn more about how to measure and teach students’ higher-order skills, including problem solving, critical thinking, and written communication?

Problem-solving skills are essential in school, careers, and life.

Problem-solving skills are important for every student to master. They help individuals navigate everyday life and find solutions to complex issues and challenges. These skills are especially valuable in the workplace, where employees are often required to solve problems and make decisions quickly and effectively.

Problem-solving skills are also needed for students’ personal growth and development because they help individuals overcome obstacles and achieve their goals. By developing strong problem-solving skills, students can improve their overall quality of life and become more successful in their personal and professional endeavors.

Problem-Solving Skills Help Students…

   develop resilience.

Problem-solving skills are an integral part of resilience and the ability to persevere through challenges and adversity. To effectively work through and solve a problem, students must be able to think critically and creatively. Critical and creative thinking help students approach a problem objectively, analyze its components, and determine different ways to go about finding a solution.  

This process in turn helps students build self-efficacy . When students are able to analyze and solve a problem, this increases their confidence, and they begin to realize the power they have to advocate for themselves and make meaningful change.

When students gain confidence in their ability to work through problems and attain their goals, they also begin to build a growth mindset . According to leading resilience researcher, Carol Dweck, “in a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”

    Set and Achieve Goals

Students who possess strong problem-solving skills are better equipped to set and achieve their goals. By learning how to identify problems, think critically, and develop solutions, students can become more self-sufficient and confident in their ability to achieve their goals. Additionally, problem-solving skills are used in virtually all fields, disciplines, and career paths, which makes them important for everyone. Building strong problem-solving skills will help students enhance their academic and career performance and become more competitive as they begin to seek full-time employment after graduation or pursue additional education and training.

  Resolve Conflicts

In addition to increased social and emotional skills like self-efficacy and goal-setting, problem-solving skills teach students how to cooperate with others and work through disagreements and conflicts. Problem-solving promotes “thinking outside the box” and approaching a conflict by searching for different solutions. This is a very different (and more effective!) method than a more stagnant approach that focuses on placing blame or getting stuck on elements of a situation that can’t be changed.

While it’s natural to get frustrated or feel stuck when working through a conflict, students with strong problem-solving skills will be able to work through these obstacles, think more rationally, and address the situation with a more solution-oriented approach. These skills will be valuable for students in school, their careers, and throughout their lives.

    Achieve Success

We are all faced with problems every day. Problems arise in our personal lives, in school and in our jobs, and in our interactions with others. Employers especially are looking for candidates with strong problem-solving skills. In today’s job market, most jobs require the ability to analyze and effectively resolve complex issues. Students with strong problem-solving skills will stand out from other applicants and will have a more desirable skill set.

In a recent opinion piece published by The Hechinger Report , Virgel Hammonds, Chief Learning Officer at KnowledgeWorks, stated “Our world presents increasingly complex challenges. Education must adapt so that it nurtures problem solvers and critical thinkers.” Yet, the “traditional K–12 education system leaves little room for students to engage in real-world problem-solving scenarios.” This is the reason that a growing number of K–12 school districts and higher education institutions are transforming their instructional approach to personalized and competency-based learning, which encourage students to make decisions, problem solve and think critically as they take ownership of and direct their educational journey.

Problem-Solving Skills Can Be Measured and Taught

Research shows that problem-solving skills can be measured and taught. One effective method is through performance-based assessments which require students to demonstrate or apply their knowledge and higher-order skills to create a response or product or do a task.

What Are Performance-Based Assessments?

With the No Child Left Behind Act (2002), the use of standardized testing became the primary way to measure student learning in the U.S. The legislative requirements of this act shifted the emphasis to standardized testing, and this led to a  decline in nontraditional testing methods .

But   many educators, policy makers, and parents have concerns with standardized tests. Some of the top issues include that they don’t provide feedback on how students can perform better, they don’t value creativity, they are not representative of diverse populations, and they can be disadvantageous to lower-income students.

While standardized tests are still the norm, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona is encouraging states and districts to move away from traditional multiple choice and short response tests and instead use performance-based assessment, competency-based assessments, and other more authentic methods of measuring students abilities and skills rather than rote learning. 

Performance-based assessments  measure whether students can apply the skills and knowledge learned from a unit of study. Typically, a performance task challenges students to use their higher-order skills to complete a project or process. Tasks can range from an essay to a complex proposal or design.

Preview a Performance-Based Assessment

Want a closer look at how performance-based assessments work?  Preview CAE’s K–12 and Higher Education assessments and see how CAE’s tools help students develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and written communication skills.

Performance-Based Assessments Help Students Build and Practice Problem-Solving Skills

In addition to effectively measuring students’ higher-order skills, including their problem-solving skills, performance-based assessments can help students practice and build these skills. Through the assessment process, students are given opportunities to practically apply their knowledge in real-world situations. By demonstrating their understanding of a topic, students are required to put what they’ve learned into practice through activities such as presentations, experiments, and simulations. 

This type of problem-solving assessment tool requires students to analyze information and choose how to approach the presented problems. This process enhances their critical thinking skills and creativity, as well as their problem-solving skills. Unlike traditional assessments based on memorization or reciting facts, performance-based assessments focus on the students’ decisions and solutions, and through these tasks students learn to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Performance-based assessments like CAE’s College and Career Readiness Assessment (CRA+) and Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+) provide students with in-depth reports that show them which higher-order skills they are strongest in and which they should continue to develop. This feedback helps students and their teachers plan instruction and supports to deepen their learning and improve their mastery of critical skills.

Explore CAE’s Problem-Solving Assessments

CAE offers performance-based assessments that measure student proficiency in higher-order skills including problem solving, critical thinking, and written communication.

• College and Career Readiness Assessment (CCRA+) for secondary education and
• Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+) for higher education.

Our solution also includes instructional materials, practice models, and professional development.

We can help you create a program to build students’ problem-solving skills that includes:

• Measuring students’ problem-solving skills through a performance-based assessment    
• Using the problem-solving assessment data to inform instruction and tailor interventions
• Teaching students problem-solving skills and providing practice opportunities in real-life scenarios
• Supporting educators with quality professional development

Get started with our problem-solving assessment tools to measure and build students’ problem-solving skills today! These skills will be invaluable to students now and in the future.

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Center for Teaching

Teaching problem solving.

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Tips and Techniques

Expert vs. novice problem solvers, communicate.

• Have students  identify specific problems, difficulties, or confusions . Don’t waste time working through problems that students already understand.
• If students are unable to articulate their concerns, determine where they are having trouble by  asking them to identify the specific concepts or principles associated with the problem.
• In a one-on-one tutoring session, ask the student to  work his/her problem out loud . This slows down the thinking process, making it more accurate and allowing you to access understanding.
• When working with larger groups you can ask students to provide a written “two-column solution.” Have students write up their solution to a problem by putting all their calculations in one column and all of their reasoning (in complete sentences) in the other column. This helps them to think critically about their own problem solving and helps you to more easily identify where they may be having problems. Two-Column Solution (Math) Two-Column Solution (Physics)

Encourage Independence

• Model the problem solving process rather than just giving students the answer. As you work through the problem, consider how a novice might struggle with the concepts and make your thinking clear
• Have students work through problems on their own. Ask directing questions or give helpful suggestions, but  provide only minimal assistance and only when needed to overcome obstacles.
• Don’t fear  group work ! Students can frequently help each other, and talking about a problem helps them think more critically about the steps needed to solve the problem. Additionally, group work helps students realize that problems often have multiple solution strategies, some that might be more effective than others

Be sensitive

• Frequently, when working problems, students are unsure of themselves. This lack of confidence may hamper their learning. It is important to recognize this when students come to us for help, and to give each student some feeling of mastery. Do this by providing  positive reinforcement to let students know when they have mastered a new concept or skill.

Encourage Thoroughness and Patience

• Try to communicate that  the process is more important than the answer so that the student learns that it is OK to not have an instant solution. This is learned through your acceptance of his/her pace of doing things, through your refusal to let anxiety pressure you into giving the right answer, and through your example of problem solving through a step-by step process.

Experts (teachers) in a particular field are often so fluent in solving problems from that field that they can find it difficult to articulate the problem solving principles and strategies they use to novices (students) in their field because these principles and strategies are second nature to the expert. To teach students problem solving skills,  a teacher should be aware of principles and strategies of good problem solving in his or her discipline .

The mathematician George Polya captured the problem solving principles and strategies he used in his discipline in the book  How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method (Princeton University Press, 1957). The book includes  a summary of Polya’s problem solving heuristic as well as advice on the teaching of problem solving.

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• Reflecting & Assessing
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Don’t Just Tell Students to Solve Problems. Teach Them How.

The positive impact of an innovative uc san diego problem-solving educational curriculum continues to grow.

• Daniel Kane - [email protected]

Published Date

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Problem solving is a critical skill for technical education and technical careers of all types. But what are best practices for teaching problem solving to high school and college students? 

The University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering is on the forefront of efforts to improve how problem solving is taught. This UC San Diego approach puts hands-on problem-identification and problem-solving techniques front and center. Over 1,500 students across the San Diego region have already benefited over the last three years from this program. In the 2023-2024 academic year, approximately 1,000 upper-level high school students will be taking the problem solving course in four different school districts in the San Diego region. Based on the positive results with college students, as well as high school juniors and seniors in the San Diego region, the project is getting attention from educators across the state of California, and around the nation and the world.

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In Summer 2023, th e 27 community college students who took the unique problem-solving course developed at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering thrived, according to Alex Phan PhD, the Executive Director of Student Success at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Phan oversees the project. 

Over the course of three weeks, these students from Southwestern College and San Diego City College poured their enthusiasm into problem solving through hands-on team engineering challenges. The students brimmed with positive energy as they worked together. 

What was noticeably absent from this laboratory classroom: frustration.

“In school, we often tell students to brainstorm, but they don’t often know where to start. This curriculum gives students direct strategies for brainstorming, for identifying problems, for solving problems,” sai d Jennifer Ogo, a teacher from Kearny High School who taught the problem-solving course in summer 2023 at UC San Diego. Ogo was part of group of educators who took the course themselves last summer.

The curriculum has been created, refined and administered over the last three years through a collaboration between the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and the UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies. The project kicked off in 2020 with a generous gift from a local philanthropist.

Not getting stuck

One of the overarching goals of this project is to teach both problem-identification and problem-solving skills that help students avoid getting stuck during the learning process. Stuck feelings lead to frustration – and when it’s a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) project, that frustration can lead students to feel they don’t belong in a STEM major or a STEM career. Instead, the UC San Diego curriculum is designed to give students the tools that lead to reactions like “this class is hard, but I know I can do this!” –  as Ogo, a celebrated high school biomedical sciences and technology teacher, put it. 

Three years into the curriculum development effort, the light-hearted energy of the students combined with their intense focus points to success. On the last day of the class, Mourad Mjahed PhD, Director of the MESA Program at Southwestern College’s School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering came to UC San Diego to see the final project presentations made by his 22 MESA students.

“Industry is looking for students who have learned from their failures and who have worked outside of their comfort zones,” said Mjahed. The UC San Diego problem-solving curriculum, Mjahed noted, is an opportunity for students to build the skills and the confidence to learn from their failures and to work outside their comfort zone. “And from there, they see pathways to real careers,” he said. 

What does it mean to explicitly teach problem solving? 

This approach to teaching problem solving includes a significant focus on learning to identify the problem that actually needs to be solved, in order to avoid solving the wrong problem. The curriculum is organized so that each day is a complete experience. It begins with the teacher introducing the problem-identification or problem-solving strategy of the day. The teacher then presents case studies of that particular strategy in action. Next, the students get introduced to the day’s challenge project. Working in teams, the students compete to win the challenge while integrating the day’s technique. Finally, the class reconvenes to reflect. They discuss what worked and didn't work with their designs as well as how they could have used the day’s problem-identification or problem-solving technique more effectively. 

The challenges are designed to be engaging – and over three years, they have been refined to be even more engaging. But the student engagement is about much more than being entertained. Many of the students recognize early on that the problem-identification and problem-solving skills they are learning can be applied not just in the classroom, but in other classes and in life in general. 

Gabriel from Southwestern College is one of the students who saw benefits outside the classroom almost immediately. In addition to taking the UC San Diego problem-solving course, Gabriel was concurrently enrolled in an online computer science programming class. He said he immediately started applying the UC San Diego problem-identification and troubleshooting strategies to his coding assignments. 

Gabriel noted that he was given a coding-specific troubleshooting strategy in the computer science course, but the more general problem-identification strategies from the UC San Diego class had been extremely helpful. It’s critical to “find the right problem so you can get the right solution. The strategies here,” he said, “they work everywhere.”

Phan echoed this sentiment. “We believe this curriculum can prepare students for the technical workforce. It can prepare students to be impactful for any career path.”

The goal is to be able to offer the course in community colleges for course credit that transfers to the UC, and to possibly offer a version of the course to incoming students at UC San Diego. 

As the team continues to work towards integrating the curriculum in both standardized high school courses such as physics, and incorporating the content as a part of the general education curriculum at UC San Diego, the project is expected to impact thousands more students across San Diego annually. 

Portrait of the Problem-Solving Curriculum

On a sunny Wednesday in July 2023, an experiential-learning classroom was full of San Diego community college students. They were about half-way through the three-week problem-solving course at UC San Diego, held in the campus’ EnVision Arts and Engineering Maker Studio. On this day, the students were challenged to build a contraption that would propel at least six ping pong balls along a kite string spanning the laboratory. The only propulsive force they could rely on was the air shooting out of a party balloon.

A team of three students from Southwestern College – Valeria, Melissa and Alondra – took an early lead in the classroom competition. They were the first to use a plastic bag instead of disposable cups to hold the ping pong balls. Using a bag, their design got more than half-way to the finish line – better than any other team at the time – but there was more work to do. 

As the trio considered what design changes to make next, they returned to the problem-solving theme of the day: unintended consequences. Earlier in the day, all the students had been challenged to consider unintended consequences and ask questions like: When you design to reduce friction, what happens? Do new problems emerge? Did other things improve that you hadn’t anticipated? 

Other groups soon followed Valeria, Melissa and Alondra’s lead and began iterating on their own plastic-bag solutions to the day’s challenge. New unintended consequences popped up everywhere. Switching from cups to a bag, for example, reduced friction but sometimes increased wind drag. 

Over the course of several iterations, Valeria, Melissa and Alondra made their bag smaller, blew their balloon up bigger, and switched to a different kind of tape to get a better connection with the plastic straw that slid along the kite string, carrying the ping pong balls. 

One of the groups on the other side of the room watched the emergence of the plastic-bag solution with great interest. 

“We tried everything, then we saw a team using a bag,” said Alexander, a student from City College. His team adopted the plastic-bag strategy as well, and iterated on it like everyone else. They also chose to blow up their balloon with a hand pump after the balloon was already attached to the bag filled with ping pong balls – which was unique. 

“I don’t want to be trying to put the balloon in place when it's about to explode,” Alexander explained. 

Asked about whether the structured problem solving approaches were useful, Alexander’s teammate Brianna, who is a Southwestern College student, talked about how the problem-solving tools have helped her get over mental blocks. “Sometimes we make the most ridiculous things work,” she said. “It’s a pretty fun class for sure.” 

Yoshadara, a City College student who is the third member of this team, described some of the problem solving techniques this way: “It’s about letting yourself be a little absurd.”

Alexander jumped back into the conversation. “The value is in the abstraction. As students, we learn to look at the problem solving that worked and then abstract out the problem solving strategy that can then be applied to other challenges. That’s what mathematicians do all the time,” he said, adding that he is already thinking about how he can apply the process of looking at unintended consequences to improve both how he plays chess and how he goes about solving math problems.

Looking ahead, the goal is to empower as many students as possible in the San Diego area and  beyond to learn to problem solve more enjoyably. It’s a concrete way to give students tools that could encourage them to thrive in the growing number of technical careers that require sharp problem-solving skills, whether or not they require a four-year degree. 

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Teaching problem solving: Let students get ‘stuck’ and ‘unstuck’

Subscribe to the center for universal education bulletin, kate mills and km kate mills literacy interventionist - red bank primary school helyn kim helyn kim former brookings expert @helyn_kim.

October 31, 2017

This is the second in a six-part  blog series  on  teaching 21st century skills , including  problem solving ,  metacognition , critical thinking , and collaboration , in classrooms.

In the real world, students encounter problems that are complex, not well defined, and lack a clear solution and approach. They need to be able to identify and apply different strategies to solve these problems. However, problem solving skills do not necessarily develop naturally; they need to be explicitly taught in a way that can be transferred across multiple settings and contexts.

Here’s what Kate Mills, who taught 4 th grade for 10 years at Knollwood School in New Jersey and is now a Literacy Interventionist at Red Bank Primary School, has to say about creating a classroom culture of problem solvers:

Helping my students grow to be people who will be successful outside of the classroom is equally as important as teaching the curriculum. From the first day of school, I intentionally choose language and activities that help to create a classroom culture of problem solvers. I want to produce students who are able to think about achieving a particular goal and manage their mental processes . This is known as metacognition , and research shows that metacognitive skills help students become better problem solvers.

I begin by “normalizing trouble” in the classroom. Peter H. Johnston teaches the importance of normalizing struggle , of naming it, acknowledging it, and calling it what it is: a sign that we’re growing. The goal is for the students to accept challenge and failure as a chance to grow and do better.

I look for every chance to share problems and highlight how the students— not the teachers— worked through those problems. There is, of course, coaching along the way. For example, a science class that is arguing over whose turn it is to build a vehicle will most likely need a teacher to help them find a way to the balance the work in an equitable way. Afterwards, I make it a point to turn it back to the class and say, “Do you see how you …” By naming what it is they did to solve the problem , students can be more independent and productive as they apply and adapt their thinking when engaging in future complex tasks.

After a few weeks, most of the class understands that the teachers aren’t there to solve problems for the students, but to support them in solving the problems themselves. With that important part of our classroom culture established, we can move to focusing on the strategies that students might need.

Here’s one way I do this in the classroom:

I show the broken escalator video to the class. Since my students are fourth graders, they think it’s hilarious and immediately start exclaiming, “Just get off! Walk!”

When the video is over, I say, “Many of us, probably all of us, are like the man in the video yelling for help when we get stuck. When we get stuck, we stop and immediately say ‘Help!’ instead of embracing the challenge and trying new ways to work through it.” I often introduce this lesson during math class, but it can apply to any area of our lives, and I can refer to the experience and conversation we had during any part of our day.

Research shows that just because students know the strategies does not mean they will engage in the appropriate strategies. Therefore, I try to provide opportunities where students can explicitly practice learning how, when, and why to use which strategies effectively  so that they can become self-directed learners.

For example, I give students a math problem that will make many of them feel “stuck”. I will say, “Your job is to get yourselves stuck—or to allow yourselves to get stuck on this problem—and then work through it, being mindful of how you’re getting yourselves unstuck.” As students work, I check-in to help them name their process: “How did you get yourself unstuck?” or “What was your first step? What are you doing now? What might you try next?” As students talk about their process, I’ll add to a list of strategies that students are using and, if they are struggling, help students name a specific process. For instance, if a student says he wrote the information from the math problem down and points to a chart, I will say: “Oh that’s interesting. You pulled the important information from the problem out and organized it into a chart.” In this way, I am giving him the language to match what he did, so that he now has a strategy he could use in other times of struggle.

The charts grow with us over time and are something that we refer to when students are stuck or struggling. They become a resource for students and a way for them to talk about their process when they are reflecting on and monitoring what did or did not work.

For me, as a teacher, it is important that I create a classroom environment in which students are problem solvers. This helps tie struggles to strategies so that the students will not only see value in working harder but in working smarter by trying new and different strategies and revising their process. In doing so, they will more successful the next time around.

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• Published: 11 January 2023

The effectiveness of collaborative problem solving in promoting students’ critical thinking: A meta-analysis based on empirical literature

• Enwei Xu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6424-8169 1 ,
• Wei Wang 1 &
• Qingxia Wang 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  10 , Article number:  16 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Collaborative problem-solving has been widely embraced in the classroom instruction of critical thinking, which is regarded as the core of curriculum reform based on key competencies in the field of education as well as a key competence for learners in the 21st century. However, the effectiveness of collaborative problem-solving in promoting students’ critical thinking remains uncertain. This current research presents the major findings of a meta-analysis of 36 pieces of the literature revealed in worldwide educational periodicals during the 21st century to identify the effectiveness of collaborative problem-solving in promoting students’ critical thinking and to determine, based on evidence, whether and to what extent collaborative problem solving can result in a rise or decrease in critical thinking. The findings show that (1) collaborative problem solving is an effective teaching approach to foster students’ critical thinking, with a significant overall effect size (ES = 0.82, z  = 12.78, P  < 0.01, 95% CI [0.69, 0.95]); (2) in respect to the dimensions of critical thinking, collaborative problem solving can significantly and successfully enhance students’ attitudinal tendencies (ES = 1.17, z  = 7.62, P  < 0.01, 95% CI[0.87, 1.47]); nevertheless, it falls short in terms of improving students’ cognitive skills, having only an upper-middle impact (ES = 0.70, z  = 11.55, P  < 0.01, 95% CI[0.58, 0.82]); and (3) the teaching type (chi 2  = 7.20, P  < 0.05), intervention duration (chi 2  = 12.18, P  < 0.01), subject area (chi 2  = 13.36, P  < 0.05), group size (chi 2  = 8.77, P  < 0.05), and learning scaffold (chi 2  = 9.03, P  < 0.01) all have an impact on critical thinking, and they can be viewed as important moderating factors that affect how critical thinking develops. On the basis of these results, recommendations are made for further study and instruction to better support students’ critical thinking in the context of collaborative problem-solving.

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Introduction.

Although critical thinking has a long history in research, the concept of critical thinking, which is regarded as an essential competence for learners in the 21st century, has recently attracted more attention from researchers and teaching practitioners (National Research Council, 2012 ). Critical thinking should be the core of curriculum reform based on key competencies in the field of education (Peng and Deng, 2017 ) because students with critical thinking can not only understand the meaning of knowledge but also effectively solve practical problems in real life even after knowledge is forgotten (Kek and Huijser, 2011 ). The definition of critical thinking is not universal (Ennis, 1989 ; Castle, 2009 ; Niu et al., 2013 ). In general, the definition of critical thinking is a self-aware and self-regulated thought process (Facione, 1990 ; Niu et al., 2013 ). It refers to the cognitive skills needed to interpret, analyze, synthesize, reason, and evaluate information as well as the attitudinal tendency to apply these abilities (Halpern, 2001 ). The view that critical thinking can be taught and learned through curriculum teaching has been widely supported by many researchers (e.g., Kuncel, 2011 ; Leng and Lu, 2020 ), leading to educators’ efforts to foster it among students. In the field of teaching practice, there are three types of courses for teaching critical thinking (Ennis, 1989 ). The first is an independent curriculum in which critical thinking is taught and cultivated without involving the knowledge of specific disciplines; the second is an integrated curriculum in which critical thinking is integrated into the teaching of other disciplines as a clear teaching goal; and the third is a mixed curriculum in which critical thinking is taught in parallel to the teaching of other disciplines for mixed teaching training. Furthermore, numerous measuring tools have been developed by researchers and educators to measure critical thinking in the context of teaching practice. These include standardized measurement tools, such as WGCTA, CCTST, CCTT, and CCTDI, which have been verified by repeated experiments and are considered effective and reliable by international scholars (Facione and Facione, 1992 ). In short, descriptions of critical thinking, including its two dimensions of attitudinal tendency and cognitive skills, different types of teaching courses, and standardized measurement tools provide a complex normative framework for understanding, teaching, and evaluating critical thinking.

Cultivating critical thinking in curriculum teaching can start with a problem, and one of the most popular critical thinking instructional approaches is problem-based learning (Liu et al., 2020 ). Duch et al. ( 2001 ) noted that problem-based learning in group collaboration is progressive active learning, which can improve students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Collaborative problem-solving is the organic integration of collaborative learning and problem-based learning, which takes learners as the center of the learning process and uses problems with poor structure in real-world situations as the starting point for the learning process (Liang et al., 2017 ). Students learn the knowledge needed to solve problems in a collaborative group, reach a consensus on problems in the field, and form solutions through social cooperation methods, such as dialogue, interpretation, questioning, debate, negotiation, and reflection, thus promoting the development of learners’ domain knowledge and critical thinking (Cindy, 2004 ; Liang et al., 2017 ).

Collaborative problem-solving has been widely used in the teaching practice of critical thinking, and several studies have attempted to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the empirical literature on critical thinking from various perspectives. However, little attention has been paid to the impact of collaborative problem-solving on critical thinking. Therefore, the best approach for developing and enhancing critical thinking throughout collaborative problem-solving is to examine how to implement critical thinking instruction; however, this issue is still unexplored, which means that many teachers are incapable of better instructing critical thinking (Leng and Lu, 2020 ; Niu et al., 2013 ). For example, Huber ( 2016 ) provided the meta-analysis findings of 71 publications on gaining critical thinking over various time frames in college with the aim of determining whether critical thinking was truly teachable. These authors found that learners significantly improve their critical thinking while in college and that critical thinking differs with factors such as teaching strategies, intervention duration, subject area, and teaching type. The usefulness of collaborative problem-solving in fostering students’ critical thinking, however, was not determined by this study, nor did it reveal whether there existed significant variations among the different elements. A meta-analysis of 31 pieces of educational literature was conducted by Liu et al. ( 2020 ) to assess the impact of problem-solving on college students’ critical thinking. These authors found that problem-solving could promote the development of critical thinking among college students and proposed establishing a reasonable group structure for problem-solving in a follow-up study to improve students’ critical thinking. Additionally, previous empirical studies have reached inconclusive and even contradictory conclusions about whether and to what extent collaborative problem-solving increases or decreases critical thinking levels. As an illustration, Yang et al. ( 2008 ) carried out an experiment on the integrated curriculum teaching of college students based on a web bulletin board with the goal of fostering participants’ critical thinking in the context of collaborative problem-solving. These authors’ research revealed that through sharing, debating, examining, and reflecting on various experiences and ideas, collaborative problem-solving can considerably enhance students’ critical thinking in real-life problem situations. In contrast, collaborative problem-solving had a positive impact on learners’ interaction and could improve learning interest and motivation but could not significantly improve students’ critical thinking when compared to traditional classroom teaching, according to research by Naber and Wyatt ( 2014 ) and Sendag and Odabasi ( 2009 ) on undergraduate and high school students, respectively.

The above studies show that there is inconsistency regarding the effectiveness of collaborative problem-solving in promoting students’ critical thinking. Therefore, it is essential to conduct a thorough and trustworthy review to detect and decide whether and to what degree collaborative problem-solving can result in a rise or decrease in critical thinking. Meta-analysis is a quantitative analysis approach that is utilized to examine quantitative data from various separate studies that are all focused on the same research topic. This approach characterizes the effectiveness of its impact by averaging the effect sizes of numerous qualitative studies in an effort to reduce the uncertainty brought on by independent research and produce more conclusive findings (Lipsey and Wilson, 2001 ).

This paper used a meta-analytic approach and carried out a meta-analysis to examine the effectiveness of collaborative problem-solving in promoting students’ critical thinking in order to make a contribution to both research and practice. The following research questions were addressed by this meta-analysis:

What is the overall effect size of collaborative problem-solving in promoting students’ critical thinking and its impact on the two dimensions of critical thinking (i.e., attitudinal tendency and cognitive skills)?

How are the disparities between the study conclusions impacted by various moderating variables if the impacts of various experimental designs in the included studies are heterogeneous?

This research followed the strict procedures (e.g., database searching, identification, screening, eligibility, merging, duplicate removal, and analysis of included studies) of Cooper’s ( 2010 ) proposed meta-analysis approach for examining quantitative data from various separate studies that are all focused on the same research topic. The relevant empirical research that appeared in worldwide educational periodicals within the 21st century was subjected to this meta-analysis using Rev-Man 5.4. The consistency of the data extracted separately by two researchers was tested using Cohen’s kappa coefficient, and a publication bias test and a heterogeneity test were run on the sample data to ascertain the quality of this meta-analysis.

Data sources and search strategies

There were three stages to the data collection process for this meta-analysis, as shown in Fig. 1 , which shows the number of articles included and eliminated during the selection process based on the statement and study eligibility criteria.

This flowchart shows the number of records identified, included and excluded in the article.

First, the databases used to systematically search for relevant articles were the journal papers of the Web of Science Core Collection and the Chinese Core source journal, as well as the Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI) source journal papers included in CNKI. These databases were selected because they are credible platforms that are sources of scholarly and peer-reviewed information with advanced search tools and contain literature relevant to the subject of our topic from reliable researchers and experts. The search string with the Boolean operator used in the Web of Science was “TS = (((“critical thinking” or “ct” and “pretest” or “posttest”) or (“critical thinking” or “ct” and “control group” or “quasi experiment” or “experiment”)) and (“collaboration” or “collaborative learning” or “CSCL”) and (“problem solving” or “problem-based learning” or “PBL”))”. The research area was “Education Educational Research”, and the search period was “January 1, 2000, to December 30, 2021”. A total of 412 papers were obtained. The search string with the Boolean operator used in the CNKI was “SU = (‘critical thinking’*‘collaboration’ + ‘critical thinking’*‘collaborative learning’ + ‘critical thinking’*‘CSCL’ + ‘critical thinking’*‘problem solving’ + ‘critical thinking’*‘problem-based learning’ + ‘critical thinking’*‘PBL’ + ‘critical thinking’*‘problem oriented’) AND FT = (‘experiment’ + ‘quasi experiment’ + ‘pretest’ + ‘posttest’ + ‘empirical study’)” (translated into Chinese when searching). A total of 56 studies were found throughout the search period of “January 2000 to December 2021”. From the databases, all duplicates and retractions were eliminated before exporting the references into Endnote, a program for managing bibliographic references. In all, 466 studies were found.

Second, the studies that matched the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the meta-analysis were chosen by two researchers after they had reviewed the abstracts and titles of the gathered articles, yielding a total of 126 studies.

Third, two researchers thoroughly reviewed each included article’s whole text in accordance with the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Meanwhile, a snowball search was performed using the references and citations of the included articles to ensure complete coverage of the articles. Ultimately, 36 articles were kept.

Two researchers worked together to carry out this entire process, and a consensus rate of almost 94.7% was reached after discussion and negotiation to clarify any emerging differences.

Eligibility criteria

Since not all the retrieved studies matched the criteria for this meta-analysis, eligibility criteria for both inclusion and exclusion were developed as follows:

The publication language of the included studies was limited to English and Chinese, and the full text could be obtained. Articles that did not meet the publication language and articles not published between 2000 and 2021 were excluded.

The research design of the included studies must be empirical and quantitative studies that can assess the effect of collaborative problem-solving on the development of critical thinking. Articles that could not identify the causal mechanisms by which collaborative problem-solving affects critical thinking, such as review articles and theoretical articles, were excluded.

The research method of the included studies must feature a randomized control experiment or a quasi-experiment, or a natural experiment, which have a higher degree of internal validity with strong experimental designs and can all plausibly provide evidence that critical thinking and collaborative problem-solving are causally related. Articles with non-experimental research methods, such as purely correlational or observational studies, were excluded.

The participants of the included studies were only students in school, including K-12 students and college students. Articles in which the participants were non-school students, such as social workers or adult learners, were excluded.

The research results of the included studies must mention definite signs that may be utilized to gauge critical thinking’s impact (e.g., sample size, mean value, or standard deviation). Articles that lacked specific measurement indicators for critical thinking and could not calculate the effect size were excluded.

Data coding design

In order to perform a meta-analysis, it is necessary to collect the most important information from the articles, codify that information’s properties, and convert descriptive data into quantitative data. Therefore, this study designed a data coding template (see Table 1 ). Ultimately, 16 coding fields were retained.

The designed data-coding template consisted of three pieces of information. Basic information about the papers was included in the descriptive information: the publishing year, author, serial number, and title of the paper.

The variable information for the experimental design had three variables: the independent variable (instruction method), the dependent variable (critical thinking), and the moderating variable (learning stage, teaching type, intervention duration, learning scaffold, group size, measuring tool, and subject area). Depending on the topic of this study, the intervention strategy, as the independent variable, was coded into collaborative and non-collaborative problem-solving. The dependent variable, critical thinking, was coded as a cognitive skill and an attitudinal tendency. And seven moderating variables were created by grouping and combining the experimental design variables discovered within the 36 studies (see Table 1 ), where learning stages were encoded as higher education, high school, middle school, and primary school or lower; teaching types were encoded as mixed courses, integrated courses, and independent courses; intervention durations were encoded as 0–1 weeks, 1–4 weeks, 4–12 weeks, and more than 12 weeks; group sizes were encoded as 2–3 persons, 4–6 persons, 7–10 persons, and more than 10 persons; learning scaffolds were encoded as teacher-supported learning scaffold, technique-supported learning scaffold, and resource-supported learning scaffold; measuring tools were encoded as standardized measurement tools (e.g., WGCTA, CCTT, CCTST, and CCTDI) and self-adapting measurement tools (e.g., modified or made by researchers); and subject areas were encoded according to the specific subjects used in the 36 included studies.

The data information contained three metrics for measuring critical thinking: sample size, average value, and standard deviation. It is vital to remember that studies with various experimental designs frequently adopt various formulas to determine the effect size. And this paper used Morris’ proposed standardized mean difference (SMD) calculation formula ( 2008 , p. 369; see Supplementary Table S3 ).

Procedure for extracting and coding data

According to the data coding template (see Table 1 ), the 36 papers’ information was retrieved by two researchers, who then entered them into Excel (see Supplementary Table S1 ). The results of each study were extracted separately in the data extraction procedure if an article contained numerous studies on critical thinking, or if a study assessed different critical thinking dimensions. For instance, Tiwari et al. ( 2010 ) used four time points, which were viewed as numerous different studies, to examine the outcomes of critical thinking, and Chen ( 2013 ) included the two outcome variables of attitudinal tendency and cognitive skills, which were regarded as two studies. After discussion and negotiation during data extraction, the two researchers’ consistency test coefficients were roughly 93.27%. Supplementary Table S2 details the key characteristics of the 36 included articles with 79 effect quantities, including descriptive information (e.g., the publishing year, author, serial number, and title of the paper), variable information (e.g., independent variables, dependent variables, and moderating variables), and data information (e.g., mean values, standard deviations, and sample size). Following that, testing for publication bias and heterogeneity was done on the sample data using the Rev-Man 5.4 software, and then the test results were used to conduct a meta-analysis.

Publication bias test

When the sample of studies included in a meta-analysis does not accurately reflect the general status of research on the relevant subject, publication bias is said to be exhibited in this research. The reliability and accuracy of the meta-analysis may be impacted by publication bias. Due to this, the meta-analysis needs to check the sample data for publication bias (Stewart et al., 2006 ). A popular method to check for publication bias is the funnel plot; and it is unlikely that there will be publishing bias when the data are equally dispersed on either side of the average effect size and targeted within the higher region. The data are equally dispersed within the higher portion of the efficient zone, consistent with the funnel plot connected with this analysis (see Fig. 2 ), indicating that publication bias is unlikely in this situation.

This funnel plot shows the result of publication bias of 79 effect quantities across 36 studies.

Heterogeneity test

To select the appropriate effect models for the meta-analysis, one might use the results of a heterogeneity test on the data effect sizes. In a meta-analysis, it is common practice to gauge the degree of data heterogeneity using the I 2 value, and I 2  ≥ 50% is typically understood to denote medium-high heterogeneity, which calls for the adoption of a random effect model; if not, a fixed effect model ought to be applied (Lipsey and Wilson, 2001 ). The findings of the heterogeneity test in this paper (see Table 2 ) revealed that I 2 was 86% and displayed significant heterogeneity ( P  < 0.01). To ensure accuracy and reliability, the overall effect size ought to be calculated utilizing the random effect model.

The analysis of the overall effect size

This meta-analysis utilized a random effect model to examine 79 effect quantities from 36 studies after eliminating heterogeneity. In accordance with Cohen’s criterion (Cohen, 1992 ), it is abundantly clear from the analysis results, which are shown in the forest plot of the overall effect (see Fig. 3 ), that the cumulative impact size of cooperative problem-solving is 0.82, which is statistically significant ( z  = 12.78, P  < 0.01, 95% CI [0.69, 0.95]), and can encourage learners to practice critical thinking.

This forest plot shows the analysis result of the overall effect size across 36 studies.

In addition, this study examined two distinct dimensions of critical thinking to better understand the precise contributions that collaborative problem-solving makes to the growth of critical thinking. The findings (see Table 3 ) indicate that collaborative problem-solving improves cognitive skills (ES = 0.70) and attitudinal tendency (ES = 1.17), with significant intergroup differences (chi 2  = 7.95, P  < 0.01). Although collaborative problem-solving improves both dimensions of critical thinking, it is essential to point out that the improvements in students’ attitudinal tendency are much more pronounced and have a significant comprehensive effect (ES = 1.17, z  = 7.62, P  < 0.01, 95% CI [0.87, 1.47]), whereas gains in learners’ cognitive skill are slightly improved and are just above average. (ES = 0.70, z  = 11.55, P  < 0.01, 95% CI [0.58, 0.82]).

The analysis of moderator effect size

The whole forest plot’s 79 effect quantities underwent a two-tailed test, which revealed significant heterogeneity ( I 2  = 86%, z  = 12.78, P  < 0.01), indicating differences between various effect sizes that may have been influenced by moderating factors other than sampling error. Therefore, exploring possible moderating factors that might produce considerable heterogeneity was done using subgroup analysis, such as the learning stage, learning scaffold, teaching type, group size, duration of the intervention, measuring tool, and the subject area included in the 36 experimental designs, in order to further explore the key factors that influence critical thinking. The findings (see Table 4 ) indicate that various moderating factors have advantageous effects on critical thinking. In this situation, the subject area (chi 2  = 13.36, P  < 0.05), group size (chi 2  = 8.77, P  < 0.05), intervention duration (chi 2  = 12.18, P  < 0.01), learning scaffold (chi 2  = 9.03, P  < 0.01), and teaching type (chi 2  = 7.20, P  < 0.05) are all significant moderators that can be applied to support the cultivation of critical thinking. However, since the learning stage and the measuring tools did not significantly differ among intergroup (chi 2  = 3.15, P  = 0.21 > 0.05, and chi 2  = 0.08, P  = 0.78 > 0.05), we are unable to explain why these two factors are crucial in supporting the cultivation of critical thinking in the context of collaborative problem-solving. These are the precise outcomes, as follows:

Various learning stages influenced critical thinking positively, without significant intergroup differences (chi 2  = 3.15, P  = 0.21 > 0.05). High school was first on the list of effect sizes (ES = 1.36, P  < 0.01), then higher education (ES = 0.78, P  < 0.01), and middle school (ES = 0.73, P  < 0.01). These results show that, despite the learning stage’s beneficial influence on cultivating learners’ critical thinking, we are unable to explain why it is essential for cultivating critical thinking in the context of collaborative problem-solving.

Different teaching types had varying degrees of positive impact on critical thinking, with significant intergroup differences (chi 2  = 7.20, P  < 0.05). The effect size was ranked as follows: mixed courses (ES = 1.34, P  < 0.01), integrated courses (ES = 0.81, P  < 0.01), and independent courses (ES = 0.27, P  < 0.01). These results indicate that the most effective approach to cultivate critical thinking utilizing collaborative problem solving is through the teaching type of mixed courses.

Various intervention durations significantly improved critical thinking, and there were significant intergroup differences (chi 2  = 12.18, P  < 0.01). The effect sizes related to this variable showed a tendency to increase with longer intervention durations. The improvement in critical thinking reached a significant level (ES = 0.85, P  < 0.01) after more than 12 weeks of training. These findings indicate that the intervention duration and critical thinking’s impact are positively correlated, with a longer intervention duration having a greater effect.

Different learning scaffolds influenced critical thinking positively, with significant intergroup differences (chi 2  = 9.03, P  < 0.01). The resource-supported learning scaffold (ES = 0.69, P  < 0.01) acquired a medium-to-higher level of impact, the technique-supported learning scaffold (ES = 0.63, P  < 0.01) also attained a medium-to-higher level of impact, and the teacher-supported learning scaffold (ES = 0.92, P  < 0.01) displayed a high level of significant impact. These results show that the learning scaffold with teacher support has the greatest impact on cultivating critical thinking.

Various group sizes influenced critical thinking positively, and the intergroup differences were statistically significant (chi 2  = 8.77, P  < 0.05). Critical thinking showed a general declining trend with increasing group size. The overall effect size of 2–3 people in this situation was the biggest (ES = 0.99, P  < 0.01), and when the group size was greater than 7 people, the improvement in critical thinking was at the lower-middle level (ES < 0.5, P  < 0.01). These results show that the impact on critical thinking is positively connected with group size, and as group size grows, so does the overall impact.

Various measuring tools influenced critical thinking positively, with significant intergroup differences (chi 2  = 0.08, P  = 0.78 > 0.05). In this situation, the self-adapting measurement tools obtained an upper-medium level of effect (ES = 0.78), whereas the complete effect size of the standardized measurement tools was the largest, achieving a significant level of effect (ES = 0.84, P  < 0.01). These results show that, despite the beneficial influence of the measuring tool on cultivating critical thinking, we are unable to explain why it is crucial in fostering the growth of critical thinking by utilizing the approach of collaborative problem-solving.

Different subject areas had a greater impact on critical thinking, and the intergroup differences were statistically significant (chi 2  = 13.36, P  < 0.05). Mathematics had the greatest overall impact, achieving a significant level of effect (ES = 1.68, P  < 0.01), followed by science (ES = 1.25, P  < 0.01) and medical science (ES = 0.87, P  < 0.01), both of which also achieved a significant level of effect. Programming technology was the least effective (ES = 0.39, P  < 0.01), only having a medium-low degree of effect compared to education (ES = 0.72, P  < 0.01) and other fields (such as language, art, and social sciences) (ES = 0.58, P  < 0.01). These results suggest that scientific fields (e.g., mathematics, science) may be the most effective subject areas for cultivating critical thinking utilizing the approach of collaborative problem-solving.

The effectiveness of collaborative problem solving with regard to teaching critical thinking

According to this meta-analysis, using collaborative problem-solving as an intervention strategy in critical thinking teaching has a considerable amount of impact on cultivating learners’ critical thinking as a whole and has a favorable promotional effect on the two dimensions of critical thinking. According to certain studies, collaborative problem solving, the most frequently used critical thinking teaching strategy in curriculum instruction can considerably enhance students’ critical thinking (e.g., Liang et al., 2017 ; Liu et al., 2020 ; Cindy, 2004 ). This meta-analysis provides convergent data support for the above research views. Thus, the findings of this meta-analysis not only effectively address the first research query regarding the overall effect of cultivating critical thinking and its impact on the two dimensions of critical thinking (i.e., attitudinal tendency and cognitive skills) utilizing the approach of collaborative problem-solving, but also enhance our confidence in cultivating critical thinking by using collaborative problem-solving intervention approach in the context of classroom teaching.

Furthermore, the associated improvements in attitudinal tendency are much stronger, but the corresponding improvements in cognitive skill are only marginally better. According to certain studies, cognitive skill differs from the attitudinal tendency in classroom instruction; the cultivation and development of the former as a key ability is a process of gradual accumulation, while the latter as an attitude is affected by the context of the teaching situation (e.g., a novel and exciting teaching approach, challenging and rewarding tasks) (Halpern, 2001 ; Wei and Hong, 2022 ). Collaborative problem-solving as a teaching approach is exciting and interesting, as well as rewarding and challenging; because it takes the learners as the focus and examines problems with poor structure in real situations, and it can inspire students to fully realize their potential for problem-solving, which will significantly improve their attitudinal tendency toward solving problems (Liu et al., 2020 ). Similar to how collaborative problem-solving influences attitudinal tendency, attitudinal tendency impacts cognitive skill when attempting to solve a problem (Liu et al., 2020 ; Zhang et al., 2022 ), and stronger attitudinal tendencies are associated with improved learning achievement and cognitive ability in students (Sison, 2008 ; Zhang et al., 2022 ). It can be seen that the two specific dimensions of critical thinking as well as critical thinking as a whole are affected by collaborative problem-solving, and this study illuminates the nuanced links between cognitive skills and attitudinal tendencies with regard to these two dimensions of critical thinking. To fully develop students’ capacity for critical thinking, future empirical research should pay closer attention to cognitive skills.

The moderating effects of collaborative problem solving with regard to teaching critical thinking

In order to further explore the key factors that influence critical thinking, exploring possible moderating effects that might produce considerable heterogeneity was done using subgroup analysis. The findings show that the moderating factors, such as the teaching type, learning stage, group size, learning scaffold, duration of the intervention, measuring tool, and the subject area included in the 36 experimental designs, could all support the cultivation of collaborative problem-solving in critical thinking. Among them, the effect size differences between the learning stage and measuring tool are not significant, which does not explain why these two factors are crucial in supporting the cultivation of critical thinking utilizing the approach of collaborative problem-solving.

In terms of the learning stage, various learning stages influenced critical thinking positively without significant intergroup differences, indicating that we are unable to explain why it is crucial in fostering the growth of critical thinking.

Although high education accounts for 70.89% of all empirical studies performed by researchers, high school may be the appropriate learning stage to foster students’ critical thinking by utilizing the approach of collaborative problem-solving since it has the largest overall effect size. This phenomenon may be related to student’s cognitive development, which needs to be further studied in follow-up research.

With regard to teaching type, mixed course teaching may be the best teaching method to cultivate students’ critical thinking. Relevant studies have shown that in the actual teaching process if students are trained in thinking methods alone, the methods they learn are isolated and divorced from subject knowledge, which is not conducive to their transfer of thinking methods; therefore, if students’ thinking is trained only in subject teaching without systematic method training, it is challenging to apply to real-world circumstances (Ruggiero, 2012 ; Hu and Liu, 2015 ). Teaching critical thinking as mixed course teaching in parallel to other subject teachings can achieve the best effect on learners’ critical thinking, and explicit critical thinking instruction is more effective than less explicit critical thinking instruction (Bensley and Spero, 2014 ).

In terms of the intervention duration, with longer intervention times, the overall effect size shows an upward tendency. Thus, the intervention duration and critical thinking’s impact are positively correlated. Critical thinking, as a key competency for students in the 21st century, is difficult to get a meaningful improvement in a brief intervention duration. Instead, it could be developed over a lengthy period of time through consistent teaching and the progressive accumulation of knowledge (Halpern, 2001 ; Hu and Liu, 2015 ). Therefore, future empirical studies ought to take these restrictions into account throughout a longer period of critical thinking instruction.

With regard to group size, a group size of 2–3 persons has the highest effect size, and the comprehensive effect size decreases with increasing group size in general. This outcome is in line with some research findings; as an example, a group composed of two to four members is most appropriate for collaborative learning (Schellens and Valcke, 2006 ). However, the meta-analysis results also indicate that once the group size exceeds 7 people, small groups cannot produce better interaction and performance than large groups. This may be because the learning scaffolds of technique support, resource support, and teacher support improve the frequency and effectiveness of interaction among group members, and a collaborative group with more members may increase the diversity of views, which is helpful to cultivate critical thinking utilizing the approach of collaborative problem-solving.

With regard to the learning scaffold, the three different kinds of learning scaffolds can all enhance critical thinking. Among them, the teacher-supported learning scaffold has the largest overall effect size, demonstrating the interdependence of effective learning scaffolds and collaborative problem-solving. This outcome is in line with some research findings; as an example, a successful strategy is to encourage learners to collaborate, come up with solutions, and develop critical thinking skills by using learning scaffolds (Reiser, 2004 ; Xu et al., 2022 ); learning scaffolds can lower task complexity and unpleasant feelings while also enticing students to engage in learning activities (Wood et al., 2006 ); learning scaffolds are designed to assist students in using learning approaches more successfully to adapt the collaborative problem-solving process, and the teacher-supported learning scaffolds have the greatest influence on critical thinking in this process because they are more targeted, informative, and timely (Xu et al., 2022 ).

With respect to the measuring tool, despite the fact that standardized measurement tools (such as the WGCTA, CCTT, and CCTST) have been acknowledged as trustworthy and effective by worldwide experts, only 54.43% of the research included in this meta-analysis adopted them for assessment, and the results indicated no intergroup differences. These results suggest that not all teaching circumstances are appropriate for measuring critical thinking using standardized measurement tools. “The measuring tools for measuring thinking ability have limits in assessing learners in educational situations and should be adapted appropriately to accurately assess the changes in learners’ critical thinking.”, according to Simpson and Courtney ( 2002 , p. 91). As a result, in order to more fully and precisely gauge how learners’ critical thinking has evolved, we must properly modify standardized measuring tools based on collaborative problem-solving learning contexts.

With regard to the subject area, the comprehensive effect size of science departments (e.g., mathematics, science, medical science) is larger than that of language arts and social sciences. Some recent international education reforms have noted that critical thinking is a basic part of scientific literacy. Students with scientific literacy can prove the rationality of their judgment according to accurate evidence and reasonable standards when they face challenges or poorly structured problems (Kyndt et al., 2013 ), which makes critical thinking crucial for developing scientific understanding and applying this understanding to practical problem solving for problems related to science, technology, and society (Yore et al., 2007 ).

Suggestions for critical thinking teaching

Other than those stated in the discussion above, the following suggestions are offered for critical thinking instruction utilizing the approach of collaborative problem-solving.

First, teachers should put a special emphasis on the two core elements, which are collaboration and problem-solving, to design real problems based on collaborative situations. This meta-analysis provides evidence to support the view that collaborative problem-solving has a strong synergistic effect on promoting students’ critical thinking. Asking questions about real situations and allowing learners to take part in critical discussions on real problems during class instruction are key ways to teach critical thinking rather than simply reading speculative articles without practice (Mulnix, 2012 ). Furthermore, the improvement of students’ critical thinking is realized through cognitive conflict with other learners in the problem situation (Yang et al., 2008 ). Consequently, it is essential for teachers to put a special emphasis on the two core elements, which are collaboration and problem-solving, and design real problems and encourage students to discuss, negotiate, and argue based on collaborative problem-solving situations.

Second, teachers should design and implement mixed courses to cultivate learners’ critical thinking, utilizing the approach of collaborative problem-solving. Critical thinking can be taught through curriculum instruction (Kuncel, 2011 ; Leng and Lu, 2020 ), with the goal of cultivating learners’ critical thinking for flexible transfer and application in real problem-solving situations. This meta-analysis shows that mixed course teaching has a highly substantial impact on the cultivation and promotion of learners’ critical thinking. Therefore, teachers should design and implement mixed course teaching with real collaborative problem-solving situations in combination with the knowledge content of specific disciplines in conventional teaching, teach methods and strategies of critical thinking based on poorly structured problems to help students master critical thinking, and provide practical activities in which students can interact with each other to develop knowledge construction and critical thinking utilizing the approach of collaborative problem-solving.

Third, teachers should be more trained in critical thinking, particularly preservice teachers, and they also should be conscious of the ways in which teachers’ support for learning scaffolds can promote critical thinking. The learning scaffold supported by teachers had the greatest impact on learners’ critical thinking, in addition to being more directive, targeted, and timely (Wood et al., 2006 ). Critical thinking can only be effectively taught when teachers recognize the significance of critical thinking for students’ growth and use the proper approaches while designing instructional activities (Forawi, 2016 ). Therefore, with the intention of enabling teachers to create learning scaffolds to cultivate learners’ critical thinking utilizing the approach of collaborative problem solving, it is essential to concentrate on the teacher-supported learning scaffolds and enhance the instruction for teaching critical thinking to teachers, especially preservice teachers.

Implications and limitations

There are certain limitations in this meta-analysis, but future research can correct them. First, the search languages were restricted to English and Chinese, so it is possible that pertinent studies that were written in other languages were overlooked, resulting in an inadequate number of articles for review. Second, these data provided by the included studies are partially missing, such as whether teachers were trained in the theory and practice of critical thinking, the average age and gender of learners, and the differences in critical thinking among learners of various ages and genders. Third, as is typical for review articles, more studies were released while this meta-analysis was being done; therefore, it had a time limit. With the development of relevant research, future studies focusing on these issues are highly relevant and needed.

Conclusions

The subject of the magnitude of collaborative problem-solving’s impact on fostering students’ critical thinking, which received scant attention from other studies, was successfully addressed by this study. The question of the effectiveness of collaborative problem-solving in promoting students’ critical thinking was addressed in this study, which addressed a topic that had gotten little attention in earlier research. The following conclusions can be made:

Regarding the results obtained, collaborative problem solving is an effective teaching approach to foster learners’ critical thinking, with a significant overall effect size (ES = 0.82, z  = 12.78, P  < 0.01, 95% CI [0.69, 0.95]). With respect to the dimensions of critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving can significantly and effectively improve students’ attitudinal tendency, and the comprehensive effect is significant (ES = 1.17, z  = 7.62, P  < 0.01, 95% CI [0.87, 1.47]); nevertheless, it falls short in terms of improving students’ cognitive skills, having only an upper-middle impact (ES = 0.70, z  = 11.55, P  < 0.01, 95% CI [0.58, 0.82]).

As demonstrated by both the results and the discussion, there are varying degrees of beneficial effects on students’ critical thinking from all seven moderating factors, which were found across 36 studies. In this context, the teaching type (chi 2  = 7.20, P  < 0.05), intervention duration (chi 2  = 12.18, P  < 0.01), subject area (chi 2  = 13.36, P  < 0.05), group size (chi 2  = 8.77, P  < 0.05), and learning scaffold (chi 2  = 9.03, P  < 0.01) all have a positive impact on critical thinking, and they can be viewed as important moderating factors that affect how critical thinking develops. Since the learning stage (chi 2  = 3.15, P  = 0.21 > 0.05) and measuring tools (chi 2  = 0.08, P  = 0.78 > 0.05) did not demonstrate any significant intergroup differences, we are unable to explain why these two factors are crucial in supporting the cultivation of critical thinking in the context of collaborative problem-solving.

Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included within the article and its supplementary information files, and the supplementary information files are available in the Dataverse repository: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/IPFJO6 .

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the graduate scientific research and innovation project of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region named “Research on in-depth learning of high school information technology courses for the cultivation of computing thinking” (No. XJ2022G190) and the independent innovation fund project for doctoral students of the College of Educational Science of Xinjiang Normal University named “Research on project-based teaching of high school information technology courses from the perspective of discipline core literacy” (No. XJNUJKYA2003).

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Xu, E., Wang, W. & Wang, Q. The effectiveness of collaborative problem solving in promoting students’ critical thinking: A meta-analysis based on empirical literature. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 16 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01508-1

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• Collaborative Problem Solving in Schools »

Collaborative Problem Solving in Schools

Collaborative Problem Solving ® (CPS) is an evidence-based, trauma-informed practice that helps students meet expectations, reduces concerning behavior, builds students’ skills, and strengthens their relationships with educators.

Collaborative Problem Solving is designed to meet the needs of all children, including those with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges. It promotes the understanding that students who have trouble meeting expectations or managing their behavior lack the skill—not the will—to do so. These students struggle with skills related to problem-solving, flexibility, and frustration tolerance. Collaborative Problem Solving has been shown to help build these skills.

Collaborative Problem Solving avoids using power, control, and motivational procedures. Instead, it focuses on collaborating with students to solve the problems leading to them not meeting expectations and displaying concerning behavior. This trauma-informed approach provides staff with actionable strategies for trauma-sensitive education and aims to mitigate implicit bias’s impact on school discipline . It integrates with MTSS frameworks, PBIS, restorative practices, and SEL approaches, such as RULER. Collaborative Problem Solving reduces challenging behavior and teacher stress while building future-ready skills and relationships between educators and students.

Transform School Discipline

Traditional school discipline is broken, it doesn’t result in improved behavior or improved relationships between educators and students. In addition, it has been shown to be disproportionately applied to students of color. The Collaborative Problem Solving approach is an equitable and effective form of relational discipline that reduces concerning behavior and teacher stress while building skills and relationships between educators and students. Learn more >>

A Client’s Story

Collaborative Problem Solving and SEL

Collaborative Problem Solving aligns with CASEL’s five core competencies by building relationships between teachers and students using everyday situations. Students develop the skills they need to prepare for the real world, including problem-solving, collaboration and communication, flexibility, perspective-taking, and empathy. Collaborative Problem Solving makes social-emotional learning actionable.

Collaborative Problem Solving and MTSS

The Collaborative Problem Solving approach integrates with Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) in educational settings. CPS benefits all students and can be implemented across the three tiers of support within an MTSS framework to effectively identify and meet the diverse social emotional and behavioral needs of students in schools. Learn More >>

The Results

Our research has shown that the Collaborative Problem Solving approach helps kids and adults build crucial social-emotional skills and leads to dramatic decreases in behavior problems across various settings. Results in schools include remarkable reductions in time spent out of class, detentions, suspensions, injuries, teacher stress, and alternative placements as well as increases in emotional safety, attendance, academic growth, and family participation.

Educators, join us in this introductory course and develop your behavioral growth mindset!

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Developing Problem-Solving Skills for Kids | Strategies & Tips

We've made teaching problem-solving skills for kids a whole lot easier! Keep reading and comment below with any other tips you have for your classroom!

Problem-Solving Skills for Kids: The Real Deal

Picture this: You've carefully created an assignment for your class. The step-by-step instructions are crystal clear. During class time, you walk through all the directions, and the response is awesome. Your students are ready! It's finally time for them to start working individually and then... 8 hands shoot up with questions. You hear one student mumble in the distance, "Wait, I don't get this" followed by the dreaded, "What are we supposed to be doing again?"

When I was a new computer science teacher, I would have this exact situation happen. As a result, I would end up scrambling to help each individual student with their problems until half the class period was eaten up. I assumed that in order for my students to learn best, I needed to be there to help answer questions immediately so they could move forward and complete the assignment.

Here's what I wish I had known when I started teaching coding to elementary students - the process of grappling with an assignment's content can be more important than completing the assignment's product. That said, not every student knows how to grapple, or struggle, in order to get to the "aha!" moment and solve a problem independently. The good news is, the ability to creatively solve problems is not a fixed skill. It can be learned by students, nurtured by teachers, and practiced by everyone!

Your students are absolutely capable of navigating and solving problems on their own. Here are some strategies, tips, and resources that can help:

Problem-Solving Skills for Kids: Student Strategies

These are strategies your students can use during independent work time to become creative problem solvers.

1. Go Step-By-Step Through The Problem-Solving Sequence 

Post problem-solving anchor charts and references on your classroom wall or pin them to your Google Classroom - anything to make them accessible to students. When they ask for help, invite them to reference the charts first.

2. Revisit Past Problems

If a student gets stuck, they should ask themself, "Have I ever seen a problem like this before? If so, how did I solve it?" Chances are, your students have tackled something similar already and can recycle the same strategies they used before to solve the problem this time around.

3. Document What Doesn’t Work

Sometimes finding the answer to a problem requires the process of elimination. Have your students attempt to solve a problem at least two different ways before reaching out to you for help. Even better, encourage them write down their "Not-The-Answers" so you can see their thought process when you do step in to support. Cool thing is, you likely won't need to! By attempting to solve a problem in multiple different ways, students will often come across the answer on their own.

4. "3 Before Me"

Let's say your students have gone through the Problem Solving Process, revisited past problems, and documented what doesn't work. Now, they know it's time to ask someone for help. Great! But before you jump into save the day, practice "3 Before Me". This means students need to ask 3 other classmates their question before asking the teacher. By doing this, students practice helpful 21st century skills like collaboration and communication, and can usually find the info they're looking for on the way.

Problem-Solving Skills for Kids: Teacher Tips

These are tips that you, the teacher, can use to support students in developing creative problem-solving skills for kids.

1. Ask Open Ended Questions

When a student asks for help, it can be tempting to give them the answer they're looking for so you can both move on. But what this actually does is prevent the student from developing the skills needed to solve the problem on their own. Instead of giving answers, try using open-ended questions and prompts. Here are some examples:

2. Encourage Grappling

Grappling  is everything a student might do when faced with a problem that does not have a clear solution. As explained in this article from Edutopia , this doesn't just mean perseverance! Grappling is more than that - it includes critical thinking, asking questions, observing evidence, asking more questions, forming hypotheses, and constructing a deep understanding of an issue.

There are lots of ways to provide opportunities for grappling. Anything that includes the Engineering Design Process is a good one! Examples include:

• Engineering or Art Projects
• Design-thinking challenges
• Computer science projects
• Science experiments

3. Emphasize Process Over Product

For elementary students, reflecting on the process of solving a problem helps them develop a growth mindset . Getting an answer "wrong" doesn't need to be a bad thing! What matters most are the steps they took to get there and how they might change their approach next time. As a teacher, you can support students in learning this reflection process.

4. Model The Strategies Yourself! 

As creative problem-solving skills for kids are being learned, there will likely be moments where they are frustrated or unsure. Here are some easy ways you can model what creative problem-solving looks and sounds like.

• Ask clarifying questions if you don't understand something
• Admit when don't know the correct answer
• Talk through multiple possible outcomes for different situations 
• Verbalize how you’re feeling when you find a problem

Practicing these strategies with your students will help create a learning environment where grappling, failing, and growing is celebrated!

Problem-Solving Skill for Kids

Did we miss any of your favorites? Comment and share them below!

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Learn more about Kodable's free educator plan or create your free account today to get your students coding!

Kodable has everything you need to teach kids to code!

In just a few minutes a day, kids can learn all about the fundamentals of Computer Science - and so much more! With lessons ranging from zero to JavaScript, Kodable equips children for a digital future.

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IResearchNet

Problem Solving

Problem solving, a fundamental cognitive process deeply rooted in psychology, plays a pivotal role in various aspects of human existence, especially within educational contexts. This article delves into the nature of problem solving, exploring its theoretical underpinnings, the cognitive and psychological processes that underlie it, and the application of problem-solving skills within educational settings and the broader real world. With a focus on both theory and practice, this article underscores the significance of cultivating problem-solving abilities as a cornerstone of cognitive development and innovation, shedding light on its applications in fields ranging from education to clinical psychology and beyond, thereby paving the way for future research and intervention in this critical domain of human cognition.

Introduction

Problem solving, a quintessential cognitive process deeply embedded in the domains of psychology and education, serves as a linchpin for human intellectual development and adaptation to the ever-evolving challenges of the world. The fundamental capacity to identify, analyze, and surmount obstacles is intrinsic to human nature and has been a subject of profound interest for psychologists, educators, and researchers alike. This article aims to provide a comprehensive exploration of problem solving, investigating its theoretical foundations, cognitive intricacies, and practical applications in educational contexts. With a clear understanding of its multifaceted nature, we will elucidate the pivotal role that problem solving plays in enhancing learning, fostering creativity, and promoting cognitive growth, setting the stage for a detailed examination of its significance in both psychology and education. In the continuum of psychological research and educational practice, problem solving stands as a cornerstone, enabling individuals to navigate the complexities of their world. This article’s thesis asserts that problem solving is not merely a cognitive skill but a dynamic process with profound implications for intellectual growth and application in diverse real-world contexts.

The Nature of Problem Solving

Problem solving, within the realm of psychology, refers to the cognitive process through which individuals identify, analyze, and resolve challenges or obstacles to achieve a desired goal. It encompasses a range of mental activities, such as perception, memory, reasoning, and decision-making, aimed at devising effective solutions in the face of uncertainty or complexity.

Problem solving as a subject of inquiry has drawn from various theoretical perspectives, each offering unique insights into its nature. Among the seminal theories, Gestalt psychology has highlighted the role of insight and restructuring in problem solving, emphasizing that individuals often reorganize their mental representations to attain solutions. Information processing theories, inspired by computer models, emphasize the systematic and step-by-step nature of problem solving, likening it to information retrieval and manipulation. Furthermore, cognitive psychology has provided a comprehensive framework for understanding problem solving by examining the underlying cognitive processes involved, such as attention, memory, and decision-making. These theoretical foundations collectively offer a richer comprehension of how humans engage in and approach problem-solving tasks.

Problem solving is not a monolithic process but a series of interrelated stages that individuals progress through. These stages are integral to the overall problem-solving process, and they include:

• Problem Representation: At the outset, individuals must clearly define and represent the problem they face. This involves grasping the nature of the problem, identifying its constraints, and understanding the relationships between various elements.
• Goal Setting: Setting a clear and attainable goal is essential for effective problem solving. This step involves specifying the desired outcome or solution and establishing criteria for success.
• Solution Generation: In this stage, individuals generate potential solutions to the problem. This often involves brainstorming, creative thinking, and the exploration of different strategies to overcome the obstacles presented by the problem.
• Solution Evaluation: After generating potential solutions, individuals must evaluate these alternatives to determine their feasibility and effectiveness. This involves comparing solutions, considering potential consequences, and making choices based on the criteria established in the goal-setting phase.

These components collectively form the roadmap for navigating the terrain of problem solving and provide a structured approach to addressing challenges effectively. Understanding these stages is crucial for both researchers studying problem solving and educators aiming to foster problem-solving skills in learners.

Cognitive and Psychological Aspects of Problem Solving

Problem solving is intricately tied to a range of cognitive processes, each contributing to the effectiveness of the problem-solving endeavor.

• Perception: Perception serves as the initial gateway in problem solving. It involves the gathering and interpretation of sensory information from the environment. Effective perception allows individuals to identify relevant cues and patterns within a problem, aiding in problem representation and understanding.
• Memory: Memory is crucial in problem solving as it enables the retrieval of relevant information from past experiences, learned strategies, and knowledge. Working memory, in particular, helps individuals maintain and manipulate information while navigating through the various stages of problem solving.
• Reasoning: Reasoning encompasses logical and critical thinking processes that guide the generation and evaluation of potential solutions. Deductive and inductive reasoning, as well as analogical reasoning, play vital roles in identifying relationships and formulating hypotheses.

While problem solving is a universal cognitive function, individuals differ in their problem-solving skills due to various factors.

• Intelligence: Intelligence, as measured by IQ or related assessments, significantly influences problem-solving abilities. Higher levels of intelligence are often associated with better problem-solving performance, as individuals with greater cognitive resources can process information more efficiently and effectively.
• Creativity: Creativity is a crucial factor in problem solving, especially in situations that require innovative solutions. Creative individuals tend to approach problems with fresh perspectives, making novel connections and generating unconventional solutions.
• Expertise: Expertise in a specific domain enhances problem-solving abilities within that domain. Experts possess a wealth of knowledge and experience, allowing them to recognize patterns and solutions more readily. However, expertise can sometimes lead to domain-specific biases or difficulties in adapting to new problem types.

Despite the cognitive processes and individual differences that contribute to effective problem solving, individuals often encounter barriers that impede their progress. Recognizing and overcoming these barriers is crucial for successful problem solving.

• Functional Fixedness: Functional fixedness is a cognitive bias that limits problem solving by causing individuals to perceive objects or concepts only in their traditional or “fixed” roles. Overcoming functional fixedness requires the ability to see alternative uses and functions for objects or ideas.
• Confirmation Bias: Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek, interpret, and remember information that confirms preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. This bias can hinder objective evaluation of potential solutions, as individuals may favor information that aligns with their initial perspectives.
• Mental Sets: Mental sets are cognitive frameworks or problem-solving strategies that individuals habitually use. While mental sets can be helpful in certain contexts, they can also limit creativity and flexibility when faced with new problems. Recognizing and breaking out of mental sets is essential for overcoming this barrier.

Understanding these cognitive processes, individual differences, and common obstacles provides valuable insights into the intricacies of problem solving and offers a foundation for improving problem-solving skills and strategies in both educational and practical settings.

Problem Solving in Educational Settings

Problem solving holds a central position in educational psychology, as it is a fundamental skill that empowers students to navigate the complexities of the learning process and prepares them for real-world challenges. It goes beyond rote memorization and standardized testing, allowing students to apply critical thinking, creativity, and analytical skills to authentic problems. Problem-solving tasks in educational settings range from solving mathematical equations to tackling complex issues in subjects like science, history, and literature. These tasks not only bolster subject-specific knowledge but also cultivate transferable skills that extend beyond the classroom.

Problem-solving skills offer numerous advantages to both educators and students. For teachers, integrating problem-solving tasks into the curriculum allows for more engaging and dynamic instruction, fostering a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Additionally, it provides educators with insights into students’ thought processes and areas where additional support may be needed. Students, on the other hand, benefit from the development of critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and creativity. These skills are transferable to various life situations, enhancing students’ abilities to solve complex real-world problems and adapt to a rapidly changing society.

Teaching problem-solving skills is a dynamic process that requires effective pedagogical approaches. In K-12 education, educators often use methods such as the problem-based learning (PBL) approach, where students work on open-ended, real-world problems, fostering self-directed learning and collaboration. Higher education institutions, on the other hand, employ strategies like case-based learning, simulations, and design thinking to promote problem solving within specialized disciplines. Additionally, educators use scaffolding techniques to provide support and guidance as students develop their problem-solving abilities. In both K-12 and higher education, a key component is metacognition, which helps students become aware of their thought processes and adapt their problem-solving strategies as needed.

Assessing problem-solving abilities in educational settings involves a combination of formative and summative assessments. Formative assessments, including classroom discussions, peer evaluations, and self-assessments, provide ongoing feedback and opportunities for improvement. Summative assessments may include standardized tests designed to evaluate problem-solving skills within a particular subject area. Performance-based assessments, such as essays, projects, and presentations, offer a holistic view of students’ problem-solving capabilities. Rubrics and scoring guides are often used to ensure consistency in assessment, allowing educators to measure not only the correctness of answers but also the quality of the problem-solving process. The evolving field of educational technology has also introduced computer-based simulations and adaptive learning platforms, enabling precise measurement and tailored feedback on students’ problem-solving performance.

Understanding the pivotal role of problem solving in educational psychology, the diverse pedagogical strategies for teaching it, and the methods for assessing and measuring problem-solving abilities equips educators and students with the tools necessary to thrive in educational environments and beyond. Problem solving remains a cornerstone of 21st-century education, preparing students to meet the complex challenges of a rapidly changing world.

Applications and Practical Implications

Problem solving is not confined to the classroom; it extends its influence to various real-world contexts, showcasing its relevance and impact. In business, problem solving is the driving force behind product development, process improvement, and conflict resolution. For instance, companies often use problem-solving methodologies like Six Sigma to identify and rectify issues in manufacturing. In healthcare, medical professionals employ problem-solving skills to diagnose complex illnesses and devise treatment plans. Additionally, technology advancements frequently stem from creative problem solving, as engineers and developers tackle challenges in software, hardware, and systems design. Real-world problem solving transcends specific domains, as individuals in diverse fields address multifaceted issues by drawing upon their cognitive abilities and creative problem-solving strategies.

Clinical psychology recognizes the profound therapeutic potential of problem-solving techniques. Problem-solving therapy (PST) is an evidence-based approach that focuses on helping individuals develop effective strategies for coping with emotional and interpersonal challenges. PST equips individuals with the skills to define problems, set realistic goals, generate solutions, and evaluate their effectiveness. This approach has shown efficacy in treating conditions like depression, anxiety, and stress, emphasizing the role of problem-solving abilities in enhancing emotional well-being. Furthermore, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) incorporates problem-solving elements to help individuals challenge and modify dysfunctional thought patterns, reinforcing the importance of cognitive processes in addressing psychological distress.

Problem solving is the bedrock of innovation and creativity in various fields. Innovators and creative thinkers use problem-solving skills to identify unmet needs, devise novel solutions, and overcome obstacles. Design thinking, a problem-solving approach, is instrumental in product design, architecture, and user experience design, fostering innovative solutions grounded in human needs. Moreover, creative industries like art, literature, and music rely on problem-solving abilities to transcend conventional boundaries and produce groundbreaking works. By exploring alternative perspectives, making connections, and persistently seeking solutions, creative individuals harness problem-solving processes to ignite innovation and drive progress in all facets of human endeavor.

Understanding the practical applications of problem solving in business, healthcare, technology, and its therapeutic significance in clinical psychology, as well as its indispensable role in nurturing innovation and creativity, underscores its universal value. Problem solving is not only a cognitive skill but also a dynamic force that shapes and improves the world we inhabit, enhancing the quality of life and promoting progress and discovery.

In summary, problem solving stands as an indispensable cornerstone within the domains of psychology and education. This article has explored the multifaceted nature of problem solving, from its theoretical foundations rooted in Gestalt psychology, information processing theories, and cognitive psychology to its integral components of problem representation, goal setting, solution generation, and solution evaluation. It has delved into the cognitive processes underpinning effective problem solving, including perception, memory, and reasoning, as well as the impact of individual differences such as intelligence, creativity, and expertise. Common barriers to problem solving, including functional fixedness, confirmation bias, and mental sets, have been examined in-depth.

The significance of problem solving in educational settings was elucidated, underscoring its pivotal role in fostering critical thinking, creativity, and adaptability. Pedagogical approaches and assessment methods were discussed, providing educators with insights into effective strategies for teaching and evaluating problem-solving skills in K-12 and higher education.

Furthermore, the practical implications of problem solving were demonstrated in the real world, where it serves as the driving force behind advancements in business, healthcare, and technology. In clinical psychology, problem-solving therapies offer effective interventions for emotional and psychological well-being. The symbiotic relationship between problem solving and innovation and creativity was explored, highlighting the role of this cognitive process in pushing the boundaries of human accomplishment.

As we conclude, it is evident that problem solving is not merely a skill but a dynamic process with profound implications. It enables individuals to navigate the complexities of their environment, fostering intellectual growth, adaptability, and innovation. Future research in the field of problem solving should continue to explore the intricate cognitive processes involved, individual differences that influence problem-solving abilities, and innovative teaching methods in educational settings. In practice, educators and clinicians should continue to incorporate problem-solving strategies to empower individuals with the tools necessary for success in education, personal development, and the ever-evolving challenges of the real world. Problem solving remains a steadfast ally in the pursuit of knowledge, progress, and the enhancement of human potential.

References:

• Anderson, J. R. (1995). Cognitive psychology and its implications. W. H. Freeman.
• Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 2, pp. 89-195). Academic Press.
• Duncker, K. (1945). On problem-solving. Psychological Monographs, 58(5), i-113.
• Gick, M. L., & Holyoak, K. J. (1980). Analogical problem solving. Cognitive Psychology, 12(3), 306-355.
• Jonassen, D. H., & Hung, W. (2008). All problems are not equal: Implications for problem-based learning. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning, 2(2), 6.
• Kitchener, K. S., & King, P. M. (1981). Reflective judgment: Concepts of justification and their relation to age and education. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2(2), 89-116.
• Luchins, A. S. (1942). Mechanization in problem solving: The effect of Einstellung. Psychological Monographs, 54(6), i-95.
• Mayer, R. E. (1992). Thinking, problem solving, cognition. W. H. Freeman.
• Newell, A., & Simon, H. A. (1972). Human problem solving (Vol. 104). Prentice-Hall Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
• Osborn, A. F. (1953). Applied imagination: Principles and procedures of creative problem solving (3rd ed.). Charles Scribner’s Sons.
• Polya, G. (1945). How to solve it: A new aspect of mathematical method. Princeton University Press.
• Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Wisdom, intelligence, and creativity synthesized. Cambridge University Press.

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How to Teach Kids Problem-Solving Skills

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• Steps to Follow
• Allow Consequences

Whether your child can't find their math homework or has forgotten their lunch, good problem-solving skills are the key to helping them manage their life. 

A 2010 study published in Behaviour Research and Therapy found that kids who lack problem-solving skills may be at a higher risk of depression and suicidality.   Additionally, the researchers found that teaching a child problem-solving skills can improve mental health . 

You can begin teaching basic problem-solving skills during preschool and help your child sharpen their skills into high school and beyond.

Why Problem-Solving Skills Matter

Kids face a variety of problems every day, ranging from academic difficulties to problems on the sports field. Yet few of them have a formula for solving those problems.

Kids who lack problem-solving skills may avoid taking action when faced with a problem.

Rather than put their energy into solving the problem, they may invest their time in avoiding the issue.   That's why many kids fall behind in school or struggle to maintain friendships .

Other kids who lack problem-solving skills spring into action without recognizing their choices. A child may hit a peer who cuts in front of them in line because they are not sure what else to do.  

Or, they may walk out of class when they are being teased because they can't think of any other ways to make it stop. Those impulsive choices may create even bigger problems in the long run.

The 5 Steps of Problem-Solving

Kids who feel overwhelmed or hopeless often won't attempt to address a problem. But when you give them a clear formula for solving problems, they'll feel more confident in their ability to try. Here are the steps to problem-solving:  

• Identify the problem . Just stating the problem out loud can make a big difference for kids who are feeling stuck. Help your child state the problem, such as, "You don't have anyone to play with at recess," or "You aren't sure if you should take the advanced math class." 
• Develop at least five possible solutions . Brainstorm possible ways to solve the problem. Emphasize that all the solutions don't necessarily need to be good ideas (at least not at this point). Help your child develop solutions if they are struggling to come up with ideas. Even a silly answer or far-fetched idea is a possible solution. The key is to help them see that with a little creativity, they can find many different potential solutions.
• Identify the pros and cons of each solution . Help your child identify potential positive and negative consequences for each potential solution they identified. 
• Pick a solution. Once your child has evaluated the possible positive and negative outcomes, encourage them to pick a solution.
• Test it out . Tell them to try a solution and see what happens. If it doesn't work out, they can always try another solution from the list that they developed in step two. 

Practice Solving Problems

When problems arise, don’t rush to solve your child’s problems for them. Instead, help them walk through the problem-solving steps. Offer guidance when they need assistance, but encourage them to solve problems on their own. If they are unable to come up with a solution, step in and help them think of some. But don't automatically tell them what to do. 

When you encounter behavioral issues, use a problem-solving approach. Sit down together and say, "You've been having difficulty getting your homework done lately. Let's problem-solve this together." You might still need to offer a consequence for misbehavior, but make it clear that you're invested in looking for a solution so they can do better next time. 

Use a problem-solving approach to help your child become more independent.

If they forgot to pack their soccer cleats for practice, ask, "What can we do to make sure this doesn't happen again?" Let them try to develop some solutions on their own.

Kids often develop creative solutions. So they might say, "I'll write a note and stick it on my door so I'll remember to pack them before I leave," or "I'll pack my bag the night before and I'll keep a checklist to remind me what needs to go in my bag." 

Provide plenty of praise when your child practices their problem-solving skills.  

Allow for Natural Consequences

Natural consequences  may also teach problem-solving skills. So when it's appropriate, allow your child to face the natural consequences of their action. Just make sure it's safe to do so. 

For example, let your teenager spend all of their money during the first 10 minutes you're at an amusement park if that's what they want. Then, let them go for the rest of the day without any spending money.

This can lead to a discussion about problem-solving to help them make a better choice next time. Consider these natural consequences as a teachable moment to help work together on problem-solving.

Becker-Weidman EG, Jacobs RH, Reinecke MA, Silva SG, March JS. Social problem-solving among adolescents treated for depression . Behav Res Ther . 2010;48(1):11-18. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2009.08.006

Pakarinen E, Kiuru N, Lerkkanen M-K, Poikkeus A-M, Ahonen T, Nurmi J-E. Instructional support predicts childrens task avoidance in kindergarten .  Early Child Res Q . 2011;26(3):376-386. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2010.11.003

Schell A, Albers L, von Kries R, Hillenbrand C, Hennemann T. Preventing behavioral disorders via supporting social and emotional competence at preschool age .  Dtsch Arztebl Int . 2015;112(39):647–654. doi:10.3238/arztebl.2015.0647

Cheng SC, She HC, Huang LY. The impact of problem-solving instruction on middle school students’ physical science learning: Interplays of knowledge, reasoning, and problem solving . EJMSTE . 2018;14(3):731-743.

Vlachou A, Stavroussi P. Promoting social inclusion: A structured intervention for enhancing interpersonal problem‐solving skills in children with mild intellectual disabilities . Support Learn . 2016;31(1):27-45. doi:10.1111/1467-9604.12112

Öğülmüş S, Kargı E. The interpersonal cognitive problem solving approach for preschoolers .  Turkish J Educ . 2015;4(17347):19-28. doi:10.19128/turje.181093

American Academy of Pediatrics. What's the best way to discipline my child? .

Kashani-Vahid L, Afrooz G, Shokoohi-Yekta M, Kharrazi K, Ghobari B. Can a creative interpersonal problem solving program improve creative thinking in gifted elementary students? .  Think Skills Creat . 2017;24:175-185. doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2017.02.011

Shokoohi-Yekta M, Malayeri SA. Effects of advanced parenting training on children's behavioral problems and family problem solving .  Procedia Soc Behav Sci . 2015;205:676-680. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.09.106

By Amy Morin, LCSW Amy Morin, LCSW, is the Editor-in-Chief of Verywell Mind. She's also a psychotherapist, an international bestselling author of books on mental strength and host of The Verywell Mind Podcast. She delivered one of the most popular TEDx talks of all time.

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Strategies to develop problem-solving skills in students.

• November 14, 2023

Students need the freedom to brainstorm, develop solutions and make mistakes — this is truly the only way to prepare them for life outside the classroom. When students are immersed in a learning environment that only offers them step-by-step guides and encourages them to focus solely on memorisation, they are not gaining the skills necessary to help them navigate in the complex, interconnected environment of the real world.

Choosing a school that emphasises the importance of future-focussed skills will ensure your child has the abilities they need to survive and thrive anywhere in the world. What are future-focussed skills? Students who are prepared for the future need to possess highly developed communication skills, self-management skills, research skills, thinking skills, social skills and problem-solving skills. In this blog, I would like to focus on problem-solving skills.

What Are Problem-Solving Skills?

The Forage defines problem-solving skills as those that allow an individual to identify a problem, come up with solutions, analyse the options and collaborate to find the best solution for the issue.

Importance of Problem-Solving in the Classroom Setting

Learning how to solve problems effectively and positively is a crucial part of child development. When children are allowed to solve problems in a classroom setting, they can test those skills in a safe and nurturing environment. Generally, when they face age-appropriate issues, they can begin building those skills in a healthy and positive manner.

Without exposure to challenging situations and scenarios, children will not be equipped with the foundational problem-solving skills needed to tackle complex issues in the real world. Experts predict that problem-solving skills will eventually be more sought after in job applicants than hard skills related to that specific profession. Students must be given opportunities in school to resolve conflicts, address complex problems and come up with their own solutions in order to develop these skills.

Benefits of Problem-Solving Skills for Students

Learning how to solve problems offers students many advantages, such as:

Improving Academic Results

When students have a well-developed set of problem-solving skills, they are often better critical and analytical thinkers as well. They are able to effectively use these 21st-century skills when completing their coursework, allowing them to become more successful in all academic areas. By prioritising problem-solving strategies in the classroom, teachers often find that academic performance improves.

Developing Confidence

Giving students the freedom to solve problems and create their own solutions is essentially permitting them to make their own choices. This sense of independence — and the natural resilience that comes with it — allows students to become confident learners who aren’t intimidated by new or challenging situations. Ultimately, this prepares them to take on more complex challenges in the future, both on a professional and social level.

Preparing Students for Real-World Challenges

The challenges we are facing today are only growing more complex, and by the time students have graduated, they are going to be facing issues that we may not even have imagined. By arming them with real-world problem-solving experience, they will not feel intimidated or stifled by those challenges; they will be excited and ready to address them. They will know how to discuss their ideas with others, respect various perspectives and collaborate to develop a solution that best benefits everyone involved.

The Best Problem-Solving Strategies for Students

No single approach or strategy will instil a set of problem-solving skills in students.  Every child is different, so educators should rely on a variety of strategies to develop this core competency in their students.  It is best if these skills are developed naturally.

These are some of the best strategies to support students problem-solving skills:

Project-Based Learning

By providing students with project-based learning experiences and allowing plenty of time for discussion, educators can watch students put their problem-solving skills into action inside their classrooms. This strategy is one of the most effective ways to fine-tune problem-solving skills in students.  During project-based learning, teachers may take notes on how the students approach a problem and then offer feedback to students for future development. Teachers can address their observations of interactions during project-based learning at the group level or they can work with students on an individual basis to help them become more effective problem-solvers.

Encourage Discussion and Collaboration in the Classroom Setting

Another strategy to encourage the development of problem-solving skills in students is to allow for plenty of discussion and collaboration in the classroom setting.  When students interact with one another, they are naturally developing problem solving skills.  Rather than the teacher delivering information and requiring the students to passively receive information, students can share thoughts and ideas with one another.  Getting students to generate their own discussion and communication requires thinking skills. 

Utilising an Inquiry-Based approach to Learning

Students should be presented with situations in which their curiosity is sparked and they are motivated to inquire further. Teachers should ask open-ended questions and encourage students to develop responses which require problem-solving. By providing students with complex questions for which a variety of answers may be correct, teachers get students to consider different perspectives and deal with potential disagreement, which requires problem-solving skills to resolve.

Model Appropriate Problem-Solving Skills

One of the simplest ways to instil effective problem-solving skills in students is to model appropriate and respectful strategies and behaviour when resolving a conflict or addressing an issue. Teachers can showcase their problem-solving skills by:

• Identifying a problem when they come across one for the class to see
• Brainstorming possible solutions with students
• Collaborating with students to decide on the best solution
• Testing that solution and examining the results with the students
• Adapting as necessary to improve results or achieve the desired goal

Prioritise Student Agency in Learning

Recent research shows that self-directed learning is one of the most effective ways to nurture 21st-century competency development in young learners. Learning experiences that encourage student agency often require problem-solving skills.  When creativity and innovation are needed, students often encounter unexpected problems along the way that must be solved. Through self-directed learning, students experience challenges in a natural situation and can fine-tune their problem-solving skills along the way.  Self-directed learning provides them with a foundation in problem-solving that they can build upon in the future, allowing them to eventually develop more advanced and impactful problem-solving skills for real life.

21st-Century Skill Development at OWIS Singapore

Problem-solving has been identified as one of the core competencies that young learners must develop to be prepared to meet the dynamic needs of a global environment.  At OWIS Singapore, we have implemented an inquiry-driven, skills-based curriculum that allows students to organically develop critical future-ready skills — including problem-solving.  Our hands-on approach to education enables students to collaborate, explore, innovate, face-challenges, make mistakes and adapt as necessary.  As such, they learn problem-solving skills in an authentic manner.

For more information about 21st-century skill development, schedule a campus tour today.

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Trauma-informed practices in schools, teacher well-being, cultivating diversity, equity, & inclusion, integrating technology in the classroom, social-emotional development, covid-19 resources, invest in resilience: summer toolkit, civics & resilience, all toolkits, degree programs, trauma-informed professional development, teacher licensure & certification, how to become - career information, classroom management, instructional design, lifestyle & self-care, online higher ed teaching, current events, 5 problem-solving activities for the classroom.

Problem-solving skills are necessary in all areas of life, and classroom problem solving activities can be a great way to get students prepped and ready to solve real problems in real life scenarios. Whether in school, work or in their social relationships, the ability to critically analyze a problem, map out all its elements and then prepare a workable solution is one of the most valuable skills one can acquire in life.

Educating your students about problem solving skills from an early age in school can be facilitated through classroom problem solving activities. Such endeavors encourage cognitive as well as social development, and can equip students with the tools they’ll need to address and solve problems throughout the rest of their lives. Here are five classroom problem solving activities your students are sure to benefit from as well as enjoy doing:

1. Brainstorm bonanza

Having your students create lists related to whatever you are currently studying can be a great way to help them to enrich their understanding of a topic while learning to problem-solve. For example, if you are studying a historical, current or fictional event that did not turn out favorably, have your students brainstorm ways that the protagonist or participants could have created a different, more positive outcome. They can brainstorm on paper individually or on a chalkboard or white board in front of the class.

2. Problem-solving as a group

Have your students create and decorate a medium-sized box with a slot in the top. Label the box “The Problem-Solving Box.” Invite students to anonymously write down and submit any problem or issue they might be having at school or at home, ones that they can’t seem to figure out on their own. Once or twice a week, have a student draw one of the items from the box and read it aloud. Then have the class as a group figure out the ideal way the student can address the issue and hopefully solve it.

3. Clue me in

This fun detective game encourages problem-solving, critical thinking and cognitive development. Collect a number of items that are associated with a specific profession, social trend, place, public figure, historical event, animal, etc. Assemble actual items (or pictures of items) that are commonly associated with the target answer. Place them all in a bag (five-10 clues should be sufficient.) Then have a student reach into the bag and one by one pull out clues. Choose a minimum number of clues they must draw out before making their first guess (two- three). After this, the student must venture a guess after each clue pulled until they guess correctly. See how quickly the student is able to solve the riddle.

4. Survivor scenarios

Create a pretend scenario for students that requires them to think creatively to make it through. An example might be getting stranded on an island, knowing that help will not arrive for three days. The group has a limited amount of food and water and must create shelter from items around the island. Encourage working together as a group and hearing out every child that has an idea about how to make it through the three days as safely and comfortably as possible.

5. Moral dilemma

Create a number of possible moral dilemmas your students might encounter in life, write them down, and place each item folded up in a bowl or bag. Some of the items might include things like, “I saw a good friend of mine shoplifting. What should I do?” or “The cashier gave me an extra $1.50 in change after I bought candy at the store. What should I do?” Have each student draw an item from the bag one by one, read it aloud, then tell the class their answer on the spot as to how they would handle the situation.

Classroom problem solving activities need not be dull and routine. Ideally, the problem solving activities you give your students will engage their senses and be genuinely fun to do. The activities and lessons learned will leave an impression on each child, increasing the likelihood that they will take the lesson forward into their everyday lives.

You may also like to read

• Classroom Activities for Introverted Students
• Activities for Teaching Tolerance in the Classroom
• 5 Problem-Solving Activities for Elementary Classrooms
• 10 Ways to Motivate Students Outside the Classroom
• Motivating Introverted Students to Excel in the Classroom
• How to Engage Gifted and Talented Students in the Classroom

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Principals and Problem-Solving

• Posted November 13, 2014
• By Bari Walsh

If you’re a school principal, how does context matter when you’re facing a difficult problem? Where do you find your source of support, and do the people you turn to actually help you to reach effective solutions? Ebony Bridwell-Mitchell explores these questions in a paper published in Organization Science with co-author Theresa Lant, finding that the type of people principals surround themselves with, and to whom they turn for counsel, has a lot to do with how they think about their role and their challenges in the first place. This “cognitive context,” she found, helps determine their social context and is predictive of how they’ll go about solving problems or advancing their agenda.

Bridwell-Mitchell studies educational leadership, management, and organizations, often exploring the tension between structure and agency — “how we make choices within constraints,” as she describes it. “A lot of education policy is focused on what we can do to get people to make better choices — how we can spur them to be more gritty, or how we can incentivize them. But all the choices people make — even if they’re properly incentivized, even if they’re extra gritty — are constrained in some way by context. It turns out that when you look at differences across individuals, what best explains the variation is context. People in one context tend to think and do things a certain way, and very differently than people in another context.”

How Context Matters

In the recent paper, she set out to explore just how context matters when school principals are faced with decisions. She wanted to understand not only how principals’ social networks mattered, but also how cognitive context mattered — how they thought about or framed their problems.

She investigated two different ways in which principals might frame a pressing problem: as political, having to do with influence or power, or as strategic, having to do with performance and resources. She wanted to see whether that framing had an effect on the kinds of people they chose to go to for help.

She found that when people frame their problems politically, they are more likely to turn to advisors they think are trustworthy and have influence. But when they frame problems as being strategic, they are more likely to turn to people they think are accessible and have resources.

The Takeaway

What does all this mean in terms of helping principals solve problems? “If people have persistent patterns in how they see problems, then they have a tendency to choose certain kinds of people, irrespective of whether that’s what the problem actually is or those are the people they actually need,” says Bridwell-Mitchell. “You can imagine that people might be thinking about the problem in the wrong way and choosing the wrong people and not ending up with the solutions they need.”

“It really gives us an incentive to invest in what people often call shared decision making or shared leadership,” she continues. “What this is saying is, you need people to help you think carefully about these problems, so you can make sure you’re conceptualizing them in ways that will get you to the right people for help.”

Bridwell-Mitchell is doing a follow-up study to assess which cognitive contexts and social contexts may be more effective at solving which types of problems. She’s asking groups of principals to work through the issues involved in two randomly assigned scenarios, one about bullying and one about increasing achievement in middle-performing students, and then to come up with a solution. A set of experts — other principals and field experts — will assess and rate the solutions. The goal is to shed light on which factors were more helpful in arriving at effective solutions — cognitive framing, social context, or a combination of the two.

The bottom line is that context matters — perhaps more than any other factor — in effective leadership, says Bridwell-Mitchell. “If we’re not thinking about how much context matters, and how to change context, we’re losing most of the leverage that we have to actually get people to behave differently.”

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  Problems and Problem Solving

What is a problem?

In common language, a problem is an unpleasant situation, a difficulty.

But in education the first definition in Webster's Dictionary — "a question raised for inquiry, consideration, or solution" — is a common meaning.

More generally in education, it's useful to define problem broadly — as any situation, in any area of life, where you have an opportunity to make a difference, to make things better — so problem solving is converting an actual current state into a desired future state that is better, so you have "made things better."  Whenever you are thinking creatively-and-critically about ways to increase the quality of life (or to avoid a decrease in quality) for yourself and/or for others, you are actively involved in problem solving.  Defined in this way, problem solving includes almost everything you do in life.

  Problem-Solving Skills  —  Creative and Critical

An important goal of education is helping students learn how to think more productively while solving problems, by combining creative thinking (to generate ideas) and critical thinking (to evaluate ideas) with accurate knowledge (about the truth of reality).  Both modes of thinking (creative & critical) are essential for a well-rounded productive thinker, according to experts in both fields:

Richard Paul (a prominent advocate of CRITICAL THINKING ) says, "Alternative solutions are often not given, they must be generated or thought-up.  Critical thinkers must be creative thinkers as well, generating possible solutions in order to find the best one.  Very often a problem persists, not because we can't tell which available solution is best, but because the best solution has not yet been made available — no one has thought of it yet."

Patrick Hillis & Gerard Puccio (who focus on CREATIVE THINKING ) describe the combining of creative generation with critical evaluation in a strategy of creative-and-critical Problem Solving that "contains many tools which can be used interchangeably within any of the stages.  These tools are selected according to the needs of the task and are either divergent (i.e., used to generate options) or convergent (i.e., used to evaluate options)."

Creative Thinking can be motivated and guided by Creative Thinking:   One of the interactions between creative thinking and critical thinking occurs when we use critical Evaluation to motivate and guide creative Generation in a critical - and - creative process of Guided Generation that is Guided Creativity .  In my links-page for CREATIVITY you can explore this process in three stages, to better understand how a process of Guided Creativity — explored & recognized by you in Part 1 and then described by me in Part 2 — could be used (as illustrated in Part 3 ) to improve “the party atmosphere” during a dinner you'll be hosting, by improving a relationship.

  Education for Problem Solving

By using broad definitions for problem solving and education, we can show students how they already are using productive thinking to solve problems many times every day, whenever they try to “make things better” in some way..

Problem Solving:   a problem is an opportunity , in any area of life, to make things better.   Whenever a decision-and-action helps you “ make it better ” — when you convert an actual state (in the past) into a more desirable actual state (in the present and/or future) — you are problem solving, and this includes almost everything you do in life, in all areas of life.      { You can make things better if you increase quality for any aspect of life, or you maintain quality by reducing a potential decrease of quality.   }     /     design thinking ( when it's broadly defined ) is the productive problem-solving thinking we use to solve problems.  We can design (i.e. find, invent, or improve ) a better product, activity, relationship, and/or strategy (in General Design ) and/or (in Science-Design ) explanatory theory.     {   The editor of this links-page ( Craig Rusbult ) describes problem solving in all areas of life .}

note:  To help you decide whether to click a link or avoid it, links highlighted with green or purple go to pages I've written, in my website about Education for Problem Solving or in this website for THINKING SKILLS ( CREATIVE and CRITICAL ) we use to SOLVE PROBLEMS .

Education:   In another broad definition, education is learning from life-experiences, learning how to improve, to become more effective in making things better.   For example, Maya Angelou – describing an essential difference between past and present – says "I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better, " where improved problem solving skills (when "do better" leads to being able to more effectively "make things better") has been a beneficial result of education, of "knowing better" due to learning from life-experiences.

Growth:   One of the best ways to learn more effectively is by developing-and-using a better growth mindset so — when you ask yourself “how well am I doing in this area of life?” and honestly self-answer “not well enough” — instead of thinking “not ever” you are thinking “not yet” because you know that your past performance isn't your future performance;  and you are confident that in this area of life (and in other areas) you can “grow” by improving your understandings-and-skills, when you invest intelligent effort in your self-education and self-improving.  And you can "be an educator" by supporting the self-improving of other people by helping them improve their own growth mindsets.    { resources for Growth Mindset }

Growth in Problem-Solving Skills:   A main goal of this page is to help educators help students improve their skill in solving problems — by improving their ability to think productively (to more effectively combine creative thinking with critical thinking and accurate knowledge ) — in all areas of their everyday living.    {resources: growth mindset for problem solving that is creative-and-critical }

How?   You can improve your Education for Problem Solving by creatively-and-critically using general principles & strategies (like those described above & below, and elsewhere) and adapting them to specific situations, customizing them for your students (for their ages, abilities, experiences,...) and teachers, for your community and educational goals.

Promote Productive Thinking:

Build Educational Bridges:

When we show students how they use a similar problem-solving process (with design thinking ) for almost everything they do in life , we can design a wide range of activities that let us build two-way educational bridges:

• from Life into School, building on the experiences of students, to improve confidence:   When we help students recognize how they have been using a problem-solving process of design thinking in a wide range of problem-solving situations,... then during a classroom design activity they can think “I have done this before (during design-in-life ) so I can do it again (for design-in-school )” to increase their confidence about learning.  They will become more confident that they can (and will) improve the design-thinking skills they have been using (and will be using) to solve problems in life and in school.

• from School into Life, appealing to the hopes of students, to improve motivation:   We can show each student how they will be using design thinking for "almost everything they do" in their future life (in their future whole-life, inside & outside school) so the design-thinking skills they are improving in school will transfer from school into life and will help them achieve their personal goals for life .  When students want to learn in school because they are learning for life, this will increase their motivations to learn.

Improve Educational Equity:

When we build these bridges (past-to-present from Life into School , and present-to-future from School into Life ) we can improve transfers of learning — in time (past-to-present & present-to-future) and between areas (in school-life & whole-life) for whole-person education — and transitions in attitudes to improve a student's confidence & motivations.  This will promote diversity and equity in education by increasing confidence & motivation for a wider range of students, and providing a wider variety of opportunities for learning in school, and for success in school.  We want to “open up the options” for all students, so they will say “yes, I can do this” for a wider variety of career-and-life options, in areas of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and non-STEM .

This will help us improve diversity-and-equity in education by increasing confidence & motivations for a wider range of students, and providing a wider variety of opportunities for learning in school, and success in school.

  Design Curriculum & Instruction:  

• DEFINE GOALS for desired outcomes, for ideas-and-skills we want students to learn,

• DESIGN INSTRUCTION with learning activities (and associated teaching activities ) that will provide opportunities for experience with these ideas & skills, and help students learn more from their experiences.     {more about Defining Goals and Designing Instruction }   {one valuable activity is using a process-of-inquiry to learn principles-for-inquiry }

  Problem-Solving Process for Science and Design

We'll look at problem-solving process for science (below) and design ( later ) separately, and for science-and-design together., problem-solving process for science, is there a “scientific method”      we have reasons to say....

    NO, because there is not a rigid sequence of steps that is used in the same way by all scientists, in all areas of science, at all times,  but also...

    YES, because expert scientists (and designers) tend to be more effective when they use flexible strategies — analogous to the flexible goal-directed improvising of a hockey player, but not the rigid choreography of a figure skater — to coordinate their thinking-and-actions in productive ways, so they can solve problems more effectively.

Below are some models that can help students understand and do the process of science.  We'll begin with simplicity, before moving on to models that are more complex so they can describe the process more completely-and-accurately.

A simple model of science is PHEOC (Problem, Hypothesis, Experiment, Observe, Conclude).  When PHEOC, or a similar model, is presented — or is misinterpreted — as a rigid sequence of fixed steps, this can lead to misunderstandings of science, because the real-world process of science is flexible.  An assumption that “model = rigidity” is a common criticism of all models-for-process, but this unfortunate stereotype of "rigidity" is not logically justifiable because all models emphasize the flexibility of problem-solving process in real life, and (ideally) in the classroom.  If a “step by step” model (like PHEOC or its variations) is interpreted properly and is used wisely, the model can be reasonably accurate and educationally useful.  For example,...

A model that is even simpler — the 3-step POE (Predict, Observe, Learn) — has the essentials of scientific logic, and is useful for classroom instruction.

Science Buddies has Steps of the Scientific Method with a flowchart showing options for flexibility of timing.  They say, "Even though we show the scientific method as a series of steps, keep in mind that new information or thinking might cause a scientist to back up and repeat steps at any point during the process.  A process like the scientific method that involves such backing up and repeating is called an iterative process."    And they compare Scientific Method with Engineering Design Process .

Lynn Fancher explains - in The Great SM - that "while science can be done (and often is) following different kinds of protocols, the [typical simplified] description of the scientific method includes some very important features that should lead to understanding some very basic aspects of all scientific practice," including Induction & Deduction and more.

From thoughtco.com, many thoughts to explore in a big website .

Other models for the problem solving process of science are more complex, so they can be more thorough — by including a wider range of factors that actually occur in real-life science, that influence the process of science when it's done by scientists who work as individuals and also as members of their research groups & larger communities — and thus more accurate.  For example,

Understanding Science (developed at U.C. Berkeley - about ) describes a broad range of science-influencers, * beyond the core of science: relating evidence and ideas .  Because "the process of science is exciting" they want to "give users an inside look at the general principles, methods, and motivations that underlie all of science."  You can begin learning in their homepage (with US 101, For Teachers, Resource Library,...) and an interactive flowchart for "How Science Works" that lets you explore with mouse-overs and clicking.

* These factors affect the process of science, and occasionally (at least in the short run) the results of science.  To learn more about science-influencers,...

    Knowledge Building (developed by Bereiter & Scardamalia, links - history ) describes a human process of socially constructing knowledge.

    The Ethics of Science by Henry Bauer — author of Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method (click "look inside") — examines The Knowledge Filter and a Puzzle and Filter Model of "how science really works."

[[ i.o.u. - soon, in mid-June 2021, I'll fix the links in this paragraph.]] Another model that includes a wide range of factors (empirical, social, conceptual) is Integrated Scientific Method by Craig Rusbult, editor of this links-page .  Part of my PhD work was developing this model of science, in a unifying synthesis of ideas from scholars in many fields, from scientists, philosophers, historians, sociologists, psychologists, educators, and myself.  The model is described in two brief outlines ( early & later ), more thoroughly, in a Basic Overview (with introduction, two visual/verbal representations, and summaries for 9 aspects of Science Process ) and a Detailed Overview (examining the 9 aspects more deeply, with illustrations from history & philosophy of science), and even more deeply in my PhD dissertation (with links to the full text, plus a “world record” Table of Contents, references, a visual history of my diagrams for Science Process & Design Process, and using my integrative model for [[ integrative analysis of instruction ).   /   Later, I developed a model for the basic logic-and-actions of Science Process in the context of a [[ more general Design Process .

Problem-Solving Process for Design

Because "designing" covers a wide range of activities, we'll look at three kinds of designing..

Engineering Design Process:   As with Scientific Method,

    a basic process of Engineering Design can be outlined in a brief models-with-steps  –  5   5 in cycle   7 in cycle   8   10   3 & 11 .     {these pages are produced by ==[later, I'll list their names]}

    and it can be examined in more depth:  here & here and in some of the models-with-steps (5... 3 & 11), and later .

Problem-Solving Process:   also has models-with-steps (  4   4   5   6   7  ) * and models-without-steps (like the editor's model for Design-Thinking Process ) to describe creative-and-critical thinking strategies that are similar to Engineering Design Process, and are used in a wider range of life — for all problem-solving situations (and these include almost everything we do in life) — not just for engineering.     { *  these pages are produced by ==}

Design-Thinking Process:   uses a similar creative-and-critical process, * but with a focus on human - centered problems & solutions & solving - process and a stronger emphasis on using empathy .  (and creativity )

* how similar?  This depends on whether we define Design Thinking in ways that are narrow or broad.   {the wide scope of problem-solving design thinking }  {why do I think broad definitions (for objectives & process) are educationally useful ?}

Education for Design Thinking (at Stanford's Design School and beyond)

  Problem Solving in Our Schools:

Improving education for problem solving, educators should want to design instruction that will help students improve their thinking skills.  an effective strategy for doing this is..., goal-directed designing of curriculum & instruction.

When we are trying to solve a problem (to “make things better”) by improving our education for problem solving, a useful two-part process is to...

    1.  Define GOALS for desired outcomes, for the ideas-and-skills we want students to learn;

    2.  Design INSTRUCTION with Learning Activities that will provide opportunities for experience with these ideas & skills, and will help students learn more from their experiences.

Basically, the first part ( Define Goals ) is deciding WHAT to Teach , and the second part ( Design Instruction ) is deciding HOW to Teach .

But before looking at WHAT and HOW   , here are some ways to combine them with...

Strategies for Goal-Directed Designing of WHAT-and-HOW.

Understanding by Design ( UbD ) is a team of experts in goal-directed designing,

as described in an overview of Understanding by Design from Vanderbilt U.

Wikipedia describes two key features of UbD:  "In backward design, the teacher starts with classroom outcomes [#1 in Goal-Directed Designing above ] and then [#2] plans the curriculum, * choosing activities and materials that help determine student ability and foster student learning," and  "The goal of Teaching for Understanding is to give students the tools to take what they know, and what they will eventually know, and make a mindful connection between the ideas. ...  Transferability of skills is at the heart of the technique.  Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggin's technique.  If a student is able to transfer the skills they learn in the classroom to unfamiliar situations, whether academic or non-academic, they are said to truly understand."

* UbD "offers a planning process and structure to guide curriculum, assessment, and instruction.  Its two key ideas are contained in the title:  1) focus on teaching and assessing for understanding and learning transfer, and   2) design curriculum “backward” from those ends."

ASCD – the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (specializing in educational leadership ) – has a resources-page for Understanding by Design that includes links to The UbD Framework and Teaching for Meaning and Understanding: A Summary of Underlying Theory and Research plus sections for online articles and books — like Understanding by Design ( by Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe with free intro & U U ) and Upgrade Your Teaching: Understanding by Design Meets Neuroscience ( about How the Brain Learns Best by Jay McTighe & Judy Willis who did a fascinating ASCD Webinar ) and other books — plus DVDs and videos (e.g. overview - summary ) & more .

Other techniques include Integrative Analysis of Instruction and Goal-Directed Aesop's Activities .

In two steps for a goal-directed designing of education , you:

1)  Define GOALS (for WHAT you want students to improve) ;

2)  Design INSTRUCTION (for HOW to achieve these Goals) .

Although the sections below are mainly about 1. WHAT to Teach (by defining Goals ) and 2. HOW to Teach (by designing Instruction ) there is lots of overlapping, so you will find some "how" in the WHAT, and lots of "what" in the HOW.

P ERSONAL Skills   (for Thinking about Self)

A very useful personal skill is developing-and-using a...

Growth Mindset:  If self-education is broadly defined as learning from your experiences,   better self-education is learning more effectively by learning more from experience, and getting more experiences.   One of the best ways to learn more effectively is by developing a better growth mindset so — when you ask yourself “how well am I doing in this area of life?” and honestly answer “not well enough” — you are thinking “not yet” (instead of “not ever”) because you are confident that in this area of life (as in most areas, including those that are most important) you can “grow” by improving your skills, when you invest intelligent effort in your self-education.  And you can support the self-education of other people by helping them improve their own growth mindsets.     Carol Dweck Revisits the Growth Mindset and (also by Dweck) a video, Increasing Educational Equity and Opportunity .     3 Ways Educators Can Promote A Growth Mindset by Dan LaSalle, for Teach for America.     Growth Mindset: A Driving Philosophy, Not Just a Tool by David Hochheiser, for Edutopia.     Growth Mindset, Educational Equity, and Inclusive Excellence by Kris Slowinski who links to 5 videos .     What’s Missing from the Conversation: The Growth Mindset in Cultural Competency by Rosetta Lee.     YouTube video search-pages for [ growth mindset ] & [ mindset in education ] & [ educational equity mindset ].

also:  Growth Mindset for Creativity

Self-Perception -- [[a note to myself: accurate understanding/evaluation of self + confidence in ability to improve/grow ]]

M ETA C OGNITIVE Skills   (for Solving Problems)

What is metacognition?   Thinking is cognition.   When you observe your thinking and think about your thinking (maybe asking “how can I think more effectively?”) this is meta- cognition, which is cognition about cognition.  To learn more about metacognition — what it is, why it's valuable, and how to use it more effectively — some useful web-resources are:

a comprehensive introductory overview by Nancy Chick, for Vanderbilt U.

my links-section has descriptions of (and links to) pages by other authors: Jennifer Livingston, How People Learn, Marsha Lovett, Carleton College, Johan Lehrer, Rick Sheets, William Peirce, and Steven Shannon, plus links for Self-Efficacy with a Growth Mindset , and more about metacognition.

my summaries about the value of combining cognition-and-metacognition and regulating it for Thinking Strategies (of many kinds ) to improve Performing and/or Learning by Learning More from Experience with a process that is similar to...

the Strategies for Self-Regulated Learning developed by other educators.

videos — search youtube for [ metacognition ] and [ metacognitive strategies ] and [ metacognition in education ].

And in other parts of this links-page,

As one part of guiding students during an inquiry activity a teacher can stimulate their metacognition by helping them reflect on their experiences.

While solving problems, almost always it's useful to think with empathy and also with metacognitive self-empathy by asking “what do they want?” and “what do I want?” and aiming for a win-win solution.

P ROCESS -C OORDINATING Skills   (for Solving Problems)

THINKING SKILLS and THINKING PROCESS:  When educators develop strategies to improve the problem solving abilities of students, usually their focus is on thinking skills.   But thinking process is also important.

Therefore, it's useful to define thinking skills broadly, to include thinking that leads to decisions-about-actions, and actions:

        thinking  →  action-decisions  →  actions

[[ I.O.U. -- later, in mid-June 2021, the ideas below will be developed -- and i'll connect it with Metacognitive Skills because we use Metacognition to Coordinate Process.

[[ here are some ideas that eventually will be in this section:

Collaborative Problem Solving [[ this major new section will link to creative.htm# collaborative-creativity (with a brief summary of ideas from there) and expand these ideas to include general principles and "coordinating the collaboration" by deciding who will do what, when, with some individual "doing" and some together "doing" ]]

actions can be mental and/or physical (e.g. actualizing Experimental Design to do a Physical Experiment, or actualizing an Option-for-Action into actually doing the Action

[[a note to myself: educational goals:  we should help students improve their ability to combine their thinking skills — their creative Generating of Options and critical Generating of Options, plus using their Knowledge-of-Ideas that includes content-area knowledge plus the Empathy that is emphasized in Design Thinking — into an effective thinking process .

[[ Strategies for Coordinating:  students can do this by skillfully Coordinating their Problem-Solving Actions (by using their Conditional Knowledge ) into an effective Problem-Solving Process.

[[ During a process of design, you coordinate your thinking-and-actions by making action decisions about “what to do next.”  How?  When you are "skillfully Coordinating..." you combine cognitive/metacognitive awareness (of your current problem-solving process) with (by knowing, for each skill, what it lets you accomplish, and the conditions in which it will be useful).

[[ a little more about problem-solving process

[[ here are more ideas that might be used here:

Sometimes tenacious hard work is needed, and perseverance is rewarded.  Or it may be wise to be flexible – to recognize that what you've been doing may not be the best approach, so it's time to try something new – and when you dig in a new location your flexibility pays off.

Perseverance and flexibility are contrasting virtues.  When you aim for an optimal balancing of this complementary pair, self-awareness by “knowing yourself” is useful.  Have you noticed a personal tendency to err on the side of either too much perseverance or not enough?  Do you tend to be overly rigid, or too flexible?

Making a wise decision about perseverance — when you ask, “Do I want to continue in the same direction, or change course?” * — is more likely when you have an aware understanding of your situation, your actions, the results, and your goals.  Comparing results with goals is a Quality Check, providing valuable feedback that you can use as a “compass” to help you move in a useful direction.  When you look for signs of progress toward your goals in the direction you're moving, you may have a feeling, based on logic and experience, that your strategy for coordinating the process of problem solving isn't working well, and it probably never will.  Or you may feel that the goal is almost in sight and you'll soon reach it.

- How I didn't Learn to Ski (and then did) with Persevering plus Flexible Insight -

PRINCIPLES for PROBLEM SOLVING

Should we explicitly teach principles for thinking, can we use a process of inquiry to teach principles for inquiry, should we use a “model” for problem-solving process.

combining models?

What are the benefits of infusion and separate programs?  

Principles & Strategies & Models ?

Should we explicitly teach “principles” for thinking?

Using evidence and logic — based on what we know about the ways people think and learn — we should expect a well-designed combination of “experience + reflection + principles” to be more educationally effective than experience by itself, to help students improve their creative-and-critical thinking skills and whole-process skills in solving problems (for design-inquiry) and answering questions (for science-inquiry).

Can we use a process-of-inquiry to teach principles-for-inquiry?

*   In a typical sequence of ERP, students first get Experiences by doing a design activity.  During an activity and afterward, they can do Reflections (by thinking about their experiences) and this will help them recognize Principles for doing Design-Thinking Process that is Problem-Solving Process.     { design thinking is problem-solving thinking }

During reflections & discussions, typically students are not discovering new thoughts & actions.  Instead they are recognizing that during a process of design they are using skills they already know because they already have been using Design Thinking to do almost everything in their life .  A teacher can facilitate these recognitions by guiding students with questions about what they are doing now, and what they have done in the past, and how these experiences are similar, but also are different in some ways.  When students remember (their prior experience) and recognize (the process they did use, and are using), they can formulate principles for their process of design thinking.  But when they formulate principles for their process of problem solving, they are just making their own experience-based prior knowledge — of how they have been solving problems, and are now solving problems — more explicit and organized.

If we help students "make their own experience-based prior knowledge... more explicit and organized" by showing them how their knowledge can be organized into a model for problem-solving process, will this help them improve their problem-solving abilities?

IOU - This mega-section will continue being developed in mid-June 2021.

[[a note to myself: thinking skills and thinking process — What is the difference? - Experience + Reflection + Principles - coordination-decisions

[[are the following links specifically for this section about "experience + principles"? maybe not because these seem to be about principles, not whether to teach principles.]]

An excellent overview is Teaching Thinking Skills by Kathleen Cotton. (the second half of her page is a comprehensive bibliography)

This article is part of The School Improvement Research Series (available from Education Northwest and ERIC ) where you can find many useful articles about thinking skills & other topics, by Cotton & other authors.  [[a note to myself: it still is excellent, even though it's fairly old, written in 1991 -- soon, I will search to find more-recent overviews ]]

Another useful page — What Is a Thinking Curriculum ? (by Fennimore & Tinzmann) — begins with principles and then moves into applications in Language Arts, Mathematics, Sciences, and Social Sciences.

My links-page for Teaching-Strategies that promote Active Learning explores a variety of ideas about strategies for teaching (based on principles of constructivism, meaningful reception,...) in ways that are intended to stimulate active learning and improve thinking skills.   Later, a continuing exploration of the web will reveal more web-pages with useful “thinking skills & problem solving” ideas (especially for K-12 students & teachers) and I'll share these with you, here and in TEACHING ACTIVITIES .

Of course, thinking skills are not just for scholars and schoolwork, as emphasized in an ERIC Digest , Higher Order Thinking Skills in Vocational Education .  And you can get information about 23 ==Programs that Work from the U.S. Dept of Education. 

goals can include improving affective factors & character == e.g. helping students learn how to develop & use use non-violent solutions for social problems .

INFUSION and/or SEPARATE PROGRAMS?

In education for problem solving, one unresolved question is "What are the benefits of infusion, or separate programs? "  What is the difference?

With infusion , thinking skills are closely integrated with content instruction in a subject area, in a "regular" course.

In separate programs , independent from content-courses, the explicit focus of a course is to help students improve their thinking skills.

In her overview of the field, Kathleen Cotton says,

    Of the demonstrably effective programs, about half are of the infused variety, and the other half are taught separately from the regular curriculum. ...  The strong support that exists for both approaches... indicates that either approach can be effective.  Freseman represents what is perhaps a means of reconciling these differences [between enthusiastic advocates of each approach] when he writes, at the conclusion of his 1990 study: “Thinking skills need to be taught directly before they are applied to the content areas. ...  I consider the concept of teaching thinking skills directly to be of value especially when there follows an immediate application to the content area.”

For principles and examples of infusion , check the National Center for Teaching Thinking which lets you see == What is Infusion? (an introduction to the art of infusing thinking skills into content instruction), and == sample lessons (for different subjects, grade levels, and thinking skills). -- resources from teach-think-org -- [also, lessons designed to infuse Critical and Creative Thinking into content instruction]

Infusing Teaching Thinking Into Subject-Area Instruction (by Robert Swarz & David Perkins) - and more about the book

And we can help students improve their problem-solving skills with teaching strategies that provide structure for instruction and strategies for thinking . ==[use structure+strategies only in edu-section?

Adobe [in creative]

MORE about Teaching Principles for Problem Solving

[[ i.o.u. -- this section is an "overlap" between #1 (Goals) and #2 (Methods) so... maybe i'll put it in-between them? -- i'll decide soon, maybe during mid-June 2021 ]]

Two Kinds of Inquiry Activities  (for Science and Design )

To more effectively help students improve their problem-solving skills, teachers can provide opportunities for students to be actively involved in solving problems, with inquiry activities .  What happens during inquiry?  Opportunities for inquiry occur whenever a gap in knowledge — in conceptual knowledge (so students don't understand) or procedural knowledge (so they don't know what to do, or how) — stimulates action (mental and/or physical) and students are allowed to think-do-learn.

Students can be challenged to solve two kinds of problems during two kinds of inquiry activity:

    during Science-Inquiry they try to improve their understanding, by asking problem-questions and seeking answers.  During their process of solving problems, they are using Science-Design , aka Science , to design a better explanatory theory.

    during Design-Inquiry they try to improve some other aspect(s) of life, by defining problem-projects and seeking solutions.   During their process of solving problems, they are using General Design (which includes Engineering and more) to design a better product, activity, or strategy.

    But... whether the main objective is for Science-Design or General Design, a skilled designer will be flexible, will do whatever will help them solve the problem(s).  Therefore a “scientist” sometimes does engineering, and an “engineer” sometimes does science.  A teacher can help students recognize how-and-why they also do these “ crossover actions ” during an activity for Science Inquiry or Design Inquiry.  Due to these connections, we can build transfer-bridges between the two kinds of inquiry ,  and combine both to develop “hybrid activities” for Science-and-Design Inquiry.

Goal-Priorities:  There are two kinds of inquiry, so (re: Goals for What to Learn) what emphasis do we want to place on activities for Science -Inquiry and Design -Inquiry?  (in the limited amount of classroom time that teachers can use for Inquiry Activities)

Two Kinds of Improving  (for Performing and Learning )

Goal-Priorities:  There are two kinds of improving, so (re: Goals for What to Learn) what emphasis do we want to place on better Performing (now) and Learning (for later)?

When defining goals for education, we ask “How important is improving the quality of performing now, and (by learning now ) of performing later   ?”   For example, a basketball team (coach & players) will have a different emphasis in an early-season practice (when their main goal is learning well) and end-of-season championship game (when their main goal is performing well).     {we can try to optimize the “total value” of performing/learning/enjoying for short-term fun plus long-term satisfactions }

SCIENCE   (to use-learn-teach Skills for Problem Solving )

Problem-solving skills used for science.

This section supplements models for Scientific Method that "begin with simplicity, before moving on to models that are more complex so they can describe the process more completely-and-accurately. "  On the spectrum of simplicity → complexity , one of the simplest models is...

POE (Predict, Observe, Learn) to give students practice with the basic scientific logic we use to evaluate an explanatory theory about “what happens, how, and why.”  POE is often used for classroom instruction — with interactive lectures [iou - their website is temporarily being "restored"] & in other ways — and research has shown it to be effective.  A common goal of instruction-with-POE is to improve the conceptual knowledge of students, especially to promote conceptual change their alternative concepts to scientific concepts.  But students also improve their procedural knowledge for what the process of science is, and how to do the process.     { more – What's missing from POE ( experimental skills ) w hen students use it for evidence-based argumentation    and   Ecologies - Educational & Conceptual  }

Dany Adams (at Smith College) explicitly teaches critical thinking skills – and thus experiment-using skills – in the context of scientific method.

Science Buddies has models for Scientific Method (and for Engineering Design Process ) and offers Detailed Help that is useful for “thinking skills” education. ==[DetH]

Next Generation Science Standards ( NGSS ) emphasizes the importance of designing curriculum & instruction for Three Dimensional Learning with productive interactions between problem-solving Practices (for Science & Engineering ) and Crosscutting Concepts and Disciplinary Core Ideas.

Science: A Process Approach ( SAPA ) was a curriculum program earlier, beginning in the 1960s.  Michael Padilla explains how SAPA defined The Science Process Skills as "a set of broadly transferable abilities, appropriate to many science disciplines and reflective of the behavior of scientists.  SAPA categorized process skills into two types, basic and integrated.  The basic (simpler) process skills provide a foundation for learning the integrated (more complex) skills."   Also, What the Research Says About Science Process Skills by Karen Ostlund;  and Students' Understanding of the Procedures of Scientific Enquiry by Robin Millar, who examines several approaches and concludes (re: SAPA) that "The process approach is not, therefore, a sound basis for curriculum planning, nor does the analysis on which it is based provide a productive framework for research."  But I think parts of it can be used creatively for effective instruction.     { more about SAPA }

ENGINEERING   (to use-learn-teach Skills for Problem Solving )

Problem-solving skills used for engineering.

Engineering is Elementary ( E i E ) develops activities for students in grades K-8.  To get a feeling for the excitement they want to share with teachers & students, watch an "about EiE" video and explore their website .  To develop its curriculum products, EiE uses research-based Design Principles and works closely with teachers to get field-testing feedback, in a rigorous process of educational design .  During instruction, teachers use a simple 5-phase flexible model of engineering design process "to guide students through our engineering design challenges... using terms [ Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve ] children can understand."   {plus other websites about EiE }

Project Lead the Way ( PLTW ), another major developer of k-12 curriculum & instruction for engineering and other areas, has a website you can explore to learn about their educational philosophy & programs (at many schools ) & resources and more.  And you can web-search for other websites about PLTW.

Science Buddies , at level of k-12, has tips for science & engineering .

EPICS ( home - about ), at college level, is an engineering program using EPICS Design Process with a framework supplemented by sophisticated strategies from real-world engineering.  EPICS began at Purdue University and is now used at ( 29 schools) (and more with IUCCE ) including Purdue, Princeton, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Arizona State, UC San Diego, Drexel, and Butler.

DESIGN THINKING   (to use-learn-teach Skills for Problem Solving )

Design Thinking emphasizes the importance of using empathy to solve human-centered problems.

Stanford Institute of Design ( d.school ) is an innovative pioneer in teaching a process of human-centered design thinking that is creative-and-critical with empathy .  In their Design Thinking Bootleg – that's an updated version of their Bootcamp Bootleg – they share a wide variety of attitudes & techniques — about brainstorming and much more — to stimulate productive design thinking with the objective of solving real-world problems.   {their first pioneer was David Kelley }

The d.school wants to "help prepare a generation of students to rise with the challenges of our times."  This goal is shared by many other educators, in k-12 and colleges, who are excited about design thinking.  Although d.school operates at college level, they (d.school + IDEO ) are active in K-12 education as in their website about Design Thinking in Schools ( FAQ - resources ) that "is a directory [with brief descriptions] of schools and programs that use design thinking in the curriculum for K12 students...  design thinking is a powerful way for today’s students to learn, and it’s being implemented by educators all around the world."     { more about Education for Design Thinking in California & Atlanta & Pittsburgh & elsewhere} [[a note to myself: @ ws and maybe my broad-definition page]]

On twitter, # DTk12 chat is an online community of enthusiastic educators who are excited about Design Thinking ( DT ) for K-12 Education, so they host a weekly twitter chat (W 9-10 ET) and are twitter-active informally 24/7.

PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING   (to use-learn-teach Skills for Problem Solving )

Problem-Based Learning ( PBL ? ) is a way to improve motivation, thinking, and learning.  You can learn more from:

overviews of PBL from U of WA & Learning-Theories.com ;

and (in ERIC Digests) using PBL for science & math plus a longer introduction - challenges for students & teachers (we never said it would be easy!) ;

a deeper examination by John Savery (in PDF & [without abstract] web-page );

Most Popular Papers from The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning ( about IJPBL ).

videos about PBL by Edutopia (9:26) and others ;

a search in ACSD for [problem-based learning] → a comprehensive links-page for Problem-Based Learning and an ACSD-book about...

Problems as Possibilities by Linda Torp and Sara Sage:  Table of Contents - Introduction (for 2nd Edition) - samples from the first & last chapters - PBL Resources (including WeSites in Part IV) .

PBL in Schools:

Samford University uses PBL (and other activities) for Transformational Learning that "emphasizes the whole person, ... helps students grow physically, mentally, and spiritually, and encourages them to value public service as well as personal gain."

In high school education, Problem-Based Learning Design Institute from Illinois Math & Science Academy ( about );  they used to have an impressive PBL Network ( sitemap & web-resources from 2013, and 9-23-2013 story about Kent, WA ) that has mysteriously disappeared. https://www.imsa.edu/academics/inquiry/resources/ research_ethics

Vanderbilt U has Service Learning thru Community Engagement with Challenges and Opportunities and tips for Teaching Step by Step & Best Practices and Resource-Links for many programs, organizations, articles, and more.

What is PBL?   The answer is " Problem-Based Learning and/or Project-Based Learning " because both meanings are commonly used.  Here are 3 pages (+ Wikipedia) that compare PBL with PBL, examine similarities & differences, consider definitions:

    John Larmer says "we [at Buck Institute for Education which uses Project Based Learning ] decided to call problem-based learning a subset of project-based learning [with these definitions, ProblemBL is a narrower category, so all ProblemBL is ProjectBL, but not vice versa] – that is, one of the ways a teacher could frame a project is to solve a problem, " and concludes that "the semantics aren't worth worrying about, at least not for very long.  The two PBLs are really two sides of the same coin. ...  The bottom line is the same:  both PBLs can powerfully engage and effectively teach your students!"     Chris Campbell concludes, "it is probably the importance of conducting active learning with students that is worthy and not the actual name of the task.  Both problem-based and project-based learning have their place in today’s classroom and can promote 21st Century learning."     Jan Schwartz says "there is admittedly a blurring of lines between these two approaches to education, but there are differences."     Wikipedia has Problem-Based Learning (with "both" in P5BL ) and Project-Based Learning .

i.o.u. - If you're wondering "What can I do in my classroom today ?", eventually (maybe in June 2021) there will be a section for "thinking skills activities" in this page, and in the area for TEACHING ACTIVITIES .

10 Problem-Solving Scenarios for High School Students

It is certainly common to come across difficult situations including forgetting an assignment at home or overusing your phone only to miss an important project deadline. We are always surrounded by little difficulties that might become bigger problems if not addressed appropriately.

Whether it is saving your friend from the addiction to social media platforms or communicating your personal boundaries to relatives, problem-solving skills are one of the important skills you need to acquire throughout the journey of life.

Do you think these skills are in-built with other high school students? Certainly not.

It takes innovative learning methodologies just like problem-solving scenarios that help you immerse in the subject matter with precision. With problem-solving scenarios, you come across a range of problems that help you build critical thinking skills, logical reasoning, and analytical techniques.

The article will take you through scenarios that are a combination of various problems that need to be addressed strategically and carefully. As you read ahead, make sure to brainstorm solutions and choose the best one that fits the scenario. 

Helpful scenarios to build a problem-solving attitude in high schoolers

Learning through scenarios helps students look at situations from a completely analytical perspective. Problem-solving scenarios offer a combination of various situations that test the thinking skills and growth mindset of high school students. The below-mentioned scenarios are perfect for implementing problem-solving skills simply by allowing open discussions and contributions by students.

1. Uninvited Guests

You have arranged a party at your home after successfully winning the competition at the Science Fair. You invite everyone involved in the project however, one of your friends brings his cousin’s brother along. However, you have limited soft drink cans considering the number of invited people. How would you manage this situation without making anyone feel left out?

2. Communication Issues

A new teacher has joined the high school to teach about environmental conservation. She often involves students in different agriculture activities and workshops. However, one of your friends, John, is not able to understand the subject matter. He is unable to communicate his doubts to the teachers. How would you motivate him to talk to the teacher without the fear of judgment?

3. Friendship or Personal Choice?

The history teacher announced an exciting assignment opportunity that helps you explore ancient civilizations. You and your friend are pretty interested in doing the project as a team. One of your other friends, Jason, wants to join the team with limited knowledge and interest in the topic. Would you respect the friendship or deny him so you can score better on the assignment?

4. Peer Pressure 

It is common for high schoolers to follow what their friends do. However, lately, your friends have discovered different ways of showing off their skills. While they do all the fun things, there are certain activities you are not interested in doing. It often puts you in trouble whether to go with friends or take a stand for what is right. Would you take the help of peer mentoring activities in school or try to initiate a direct conversation with them?

5. Team Building 

Mr. Jason, the science teacher, assigns different projects and forms teams with random classmates. There are 7 people in each team who need to work towards project completion. As the group starts working, you notice that some members do not contribute at all. How will you ensure that everyone participates and coordinates with the team members?

6. Conflict Resolution 

The drama club and the English club are famous clubs in the school. Both clubs organize various events for the students. This time, both clubs have a tiff because of the event venue. Both clubs need the same auditorium for the venue on the same date. How would you mediate to solve the issue and even make sure that club members are on good terms with each other? 

7. Stress Management 

Your school often conducts different activities or asks students stress survey questions to ensure their happiness and well-being. However, one of your friends always misses them. He gets frustrated and seems stressed throughout the day. What would you do to ensure that your friend gets his issue acknowledged by teachers?

8. Time Management 

Your friend is always enthusiastic about new competitions in high school. He is running here and there to enroll and get certificates. In this case, he often misses important lectures and activities in class. Moreover, his parents complain that he misses swimming class too. How would you explain to him the importance of prioritizing and setting goals to solve this issue?

9. Educational Resources 

You and your friends are avid readers and often take advice from books. While most must-read books for bibliophiles are read by you, it is important to now look for other books. However, you witness that the school library lacks other important books on philosophy and the non-fiction category. How would you escalate this issue to the higher authorities by addressing the needs of students?

10. Financial Planning

Finance is an important factor and that is why your parents help you plan your pocket money and budgeting. Off lately, they have stopped doing so considering that you can manage on your own. However, after a few months, you have started spending more on games and high-end school supplies. You realize that your spending habits are leading to loss of money and reduced savings. How shall you overcome this situation?

Wrapping Up 

Involving students in different learning practices and innovative ways inspires them to think out of the box and make use of imagination skills. With the usage of different problem-solving scenarios, high school students get an opportunity to delve into realistic examples and consequences of different incidents.

Such scenarios offer an excellent way to promote understanding, critical thinking skills and enhance creativity. Ensure to use different activities and games for creating a comprehensive learning environment.

Sananda Bhattacharya, Chief Editor of TheHighSchooler, is dedicated to enhancing operations and growth. With degrees in Literature and Asian Studies from Presidency University, Kolkata, she leverages her educational and innovative background to shape TheHighSchooler into a pivotal resource hub. Providing valuable insights, practical activities, and guidance on school life, graduation, scholarships, and more, Sananda’s leadership enriches the journey of high school students.

Explore a plethora of invaluable resources and insights tailored for high schoolers at TheHighSchooler, under the guidance of Sananda Bhattacharya’s expertise. You can follow her on Linkedin

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California today

How Algebra Became a Flashpoint in Schools

A tug of war in San Francisco over whether to teach algebra in eighth or ninth grade gets at wider national questions about serving all students fairly.

By Soumya Karlamangla

Controversy over school curriculum is nothing new. But one subject that has led to lawsuits, ballot measures and fighting among parents, teachers and district officials may come as a surprise: It’s algebra.

These days most students take the math course when they are high school freshmen — remember the quadratic formula? — but top-achieving students are sometimes offered the chance to take algebra a year earlier, in eighth grade. That has led to concerns that those students are being given an unfair advantage that might widen racial and economic disparities in the United States, as my colleague Troy Closson recently reported.

“The questions are so fraught because algebra functions as a crucial crossroads in the education system,” Troy wrote. “Students who fail it are far less likely to graduate. Those who take it early can take calculus by 12th grade, giving them a potential edge when applying to elite universities and lifting them toward society’s most high-status and lucrative professions.”

Read his fascinating article on how algebra became a national flashpoint.

To understand just how divisive the algebra question has become, take a look at San Francisco.

California once required that all eighth graders take algebra. But 10 years ago, the San Francisco schools stopped offering the course in eighth grade, hoping that doing so would help level the playing field for disadvantaged students. The decision prompted intense criticism.

There were protests and academic disputes. Parents sued the school district, arguing that making students wait until high school to take algebra would seriously harm their futures. And research showed that the change had little effect on racial inequities among San Francisco students.

In March, the city approved a ballot measure urging the school district to reinstate middle-school algebra. It passed with almost 82 percent of the vote . Now the school district says it will begin offering algebra in eighth grade in August.

“Schools really don’t know what to do,” Jon R. Star, an educational psychologist at Harvard, told Troy. “And it’s just leading to a lot of tension.”

The rest of the news

The Justice Department sued Live Nation on Thursday over claims that the Beverly Hills-based concert promotion company, which owns Ticketmaster, violated antitrust laws by illegally maintaining a monopoly in the live entertainment industry.

A strike by University of California academic workers over the university system’s handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations will expand to two more campuses next Tuesday, the union said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that allows doctors from Arizona to travel to California to provide abortions for their patients until the repeal of Arizona’s abortion ban takes effect in the fall.

Southern California

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators at U.C.L.A. briefly formed a new encampment and then took over a campus building on Thursday, before police officers in riot gear moved in to remove them. The actions came the same day that Gene Block, the chancellor of the university, faced questions at a congressional hearing about an attack last month by counterprotesters on an earlier encampment.

Cassie, the singer who accused Sean Combs of rape and abuse in a lawsuit that she settled, addressed the video that emerged last week of him assaulting her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, saying: “My only ask is that everyone open your heart to believing victims the first time.”

Central California

A defunct 1950s-era cruise ship in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta has begun to sink and leak diesel fuel and oil , The Associated Press reports.

Eight pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested after blocking an entrance to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, The San Luis Obispo Tribune reports.

Northern California

After halting a test of new technology intended to fight global warming, the city of Alameda said it had found no “measurable health risk” from the test, which involved giant fans spraying salty mist into the air.

Oakland officials said that restructuring city departments and selling the city’s share of the Oakland Coliseum would help close a steep budget deficit without layoffs or cutbacks, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

In his book “Reading the Room,” Paul Yamazaki, the chief buyer for City Lights Booksellers in San Francisco, says now is “one of the richest and most rewarding times” to be a literature fan.

And before you go, some good news

General Sherman, a giant sequoia in Central California that is considered to be the world’s largest tree , passed a major health check this week, The Associated Press reported.

Researchers scaled the 275-foot tree to search for bark beetles, which have recently begun to kill giant sequoias. General Sherman seemed, for the moment, to have warded off the insects.

“The General Sherman tree is doing fine right now,” Anthony Ambrose, executive director of the Ancient Forest Society, told the news agency . “It seems to be a very healthy tree that’s able to fend off any beetle attack.”

Bark beetles pose an emerging threat to giant sequoias, as drought and fires amplified by climate change weaken the enormous trees and make them more susceptible to beetle attacks. According to The A.P., scientists have discovered about 40 sequoias, mostly in national parks, that have died from beetle infestations.

“Why are we seeing this change?” Clay Jordan, superintendent for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, told the news outlet. “There’s a lot that we need to learn in order to ensure good stewardship of these trees for a long time.”

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back on Tuesday. Enjoy your long weekend. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword .

Halina Bennet and Kellina Moore contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox .

Soumya Karlamangla reports on California news and culture and is based in San Francisco. She writes the California Today newsletter. More about Soumya Karlamangla

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Marines say no more ‘death by PowerPoint’ as Corps overhauls education

WASHINGTON, D.C. ― Marines and those who teach them will see more direct, problem-solving approaches to how they learn and far less “death by PowerPoint” as the Corps overhauls its education methods .

Decades of lecturers “foot stomping” material for Marines to learn, recall and regurgitate on a test before forgetting most of what they heard is being replaced by “outcomes-based” learning, a method that’s been in use in other fields but only recently brought into military training.

“Instead of teaching them what to think, we’re teaching them how to think,” said Col. Karl Arbogast, director of the policy and standards division at training and education command .

Here’s what’s in the Corps’ new training and education plan

New ranges, tougher swimming. inside the corps' new training blueprint..

Arbogast laid out some of the new methods that the command is using at the center for learning and faculty development while speaking at the Modern Day Marine Expo.

“No more death by PowerPoint,” Arbogast said. “No more ‘sage on the stage’ anymore, it’s the ‘guide on the side.’”

To do that, Lt. Col. Chris Devries, director of the learning and faculty center, is a multiyear process in which the Marines have developed two new military occupational specialties, 0951 and 0952.

The exceptional MOS is in addition to their primary MOS but allows the Marines to quickly identify who among their ranks is qualified to teach using the new methods.

Training for those jobs gives instructors, now called facilitators, an entry-level understanding of how to teach in an outcomes-based learning model.

Devries said the long-term goal is to create two more levels of instructor/facilitator that a Marine could return to in their career, a journeyman level and a master level. Those curricula are still under development.

The new method helps facilitators first learn the technology they’ll need to share material with and guide students. It also teaches them more formal assessment tools so they can gauge how well students are performing.

For the students, they can learn at their own pace. If they grasp the material the group is covering, they’re encouraged to advance in their study, rather than wait for the entire group to master the introductory material.

More responsibility is placed on the students. For example, in a land navigation class, a facilitator might share materials for students to review before class on their own and then immediately jump into working with maps, compasses and protractors on land navigation projects in the next class period, said John deForest, learning and development officer at the center.

That creates more time in the field for those Marines to practice the skills in a realistic setting.

Marines with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 268, Marine Aircraft Group 24, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, fire M240-B machine guns at the Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay range, Hawaii, March 5. (Lance Cpl. Tania Guerrero/Marine Corps)

For the infantry Marine course, the school split up the large classroom into squad-sized groups led by a sergeant or staff sergeant, allowing for more individual focus and participation among the students, Arbogast said.

“They have to now prepare activities for the learner to be directly involved in their own learning and then they have to steer and guide the learners correct outcome,” said Timothy Heck, director of the center’s West Coast detachment.

The students are creating products and portfolios of activities in their training instead of simply taking a written test, said Justina Kirkland, a facilitator at the West Coast detachment.

Students are also pushed to discuss problems among themselves and troubleshoot scenarios. The role of the facilitator then is to monitor the conversation and ask probing questions to redirect the group if they get off course, Heck said.

That involves more decision games, decision forcing cases and even wargaming, deForest said.

We “put the student in an active learning experience where they have to grapple with uncertainty, where they have to grapple with the technical skills and the knowledge they need,” deForest said.

That makes the learning more about application than recall, he said.

Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.

In Other News

She was America’s first woman POW in Vietnam — and was never found

In 1962, dr. eleanor ardel vietti became america's first female prisoner of war in vietnam. she's still unaccounted for..

US military funeral traditions honor the fallen on land, air and sea

From missing man formation flyovers to taps, here’s how the services pay respect to america's fallen heroes..

Former President Obama surprises volunteers at Memorial Day event

Obama joined local veterans groups and scouts in a volunteer event at a virginia cemetery ahead of memorial day..

World War II ace Richard Bong’s plane found, explorers believe

Searchers announced thursday they’ve discovered what they believe is the wreckage of world war ii ace richard bong’s plane..

Proposal would boost retirement help for military working dogs

Lawmakers want to start a new grant program to cover medical costs for retired military working dogs..

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The Problem-solving Schools' Charter

We have developed this Charter to help you reflect on how you currently promote mathematical problem-solving in your school. We are hoping that the links we have included will give you some ideas on how to raise the profile of problem-solving in your school.

We are planning to add further links and would be happy to receive your recommendations by email .

Values and ethos

We have a shared belief that:

• Mathematical ability is not fixed: everyone can learn and make progress
• Problem-solving often involves taking wrong turns and making mistakes: every learner has the right to struggle and the right to enjoy success
• Everyone should have the opportunity to develop the skills and attitudes necessary to become confident problem-solvers
• Problem-solving can motivate learners to learn new mathematics, apply previous learning and make mathematical connections

Leadership and professional development

In our setting:

• Our staff promote positive attitudes towards problem-solving
• Time is set aside to discuss problem-solving in our meetings
• Our displays, newsletters, website, and social media content celebrate problem-solving for all
• Our monitoring system ensures that priority is given to problem-solving and mathematical thinking
• We engage with printed, online and face-to-face professional development opportunities offered by subject organisations

Curriculum, pedagogy and assessment

We are committed to:

• Regularly embedding non-standard problem-solving opportunities in our maths curriculum for all
• Ensuring that problems, and classroom support, offer opportunities for all to experience both struggle and success
• Allocating time to developing key problem-solving skills ( Primary  and  Secondary ) and positive attitudes ( Curious , Resilient , Resourceful, Collaborative )
• Including non-standard problems in our internal/formative assessments
• Liaising with other subjects so that meaningful cross-curricular links can be made

Classroom culture

• Create a safe environment in which learners explore, take risks, and appreciate the value of learning from their mistakes
• Celebrate multiple approaches to solving problems and discuss the merits of the different strategies offered
• Provide frequent opportunities for individual and collaborative problem-solving , where learners are given both thinking time, and opportunities to share ideas and insights
• Celebrate the mathematical thinking of every learner

Problem-solving beyond the classroom/school

We encourage:

• Learners to engage with school Maths Club(s) and high quality Primary  and  Secondary maths books, ideally stocked by the school library
• Learners to take advantage of printed, online ( Parallel , Chalkdust , Numberphile , Plus ) and off-site mathematical enrichment opportunities ( MathsCity , The Royal Institution , Maths Inspiration )
• Parents and carers to engage with problem-solving through family homeworks and in-school events, while recognising that not every adult has had a positive experience of maths
• Our learners to appreciate, and learn more about, the achievements of a diverse range of mathematicians

You may find this printable version  of the Charter useful.

Become a Problem-Solving School

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Combating school bullying through multi-role experience-based virtual scenario learning model: Assessing empathy, problem-solving, and self-efficacy from a multi-stakeholder perspective

Associated data.

Data included in article/supplementary material/referenced in article.

This study explores the applications of virtual scenario learning in addressing the global issue of school bullying through digital educational tools. Previous research suggests that virtual role-playing experiences can reduce bullying incidents; however, experiencing the victim role can evoke negative emotions, while the bystander role may not fully convey the severity of bullying. This study aims to investigate the effects of a multi-role experience-based virtual scenario learning model on learners by integrating the advantages of both roles. This study employed a quasi-experimental research method, which involved grouping 56 fourth-grade elementary school students in Taipei City, Taiwan, into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group utilized the multi-role experience-based virtual scenario learning model, while the control group utilized a single-role experience-based model. The study compared the differences in academic achievement, empathy, and problem-solving tendencies between the two groups. The findings indicate that the experimental group significantly excelled over the control group in academic achievement, empathy, and problem-solving tendencies. The multi-role experience-based virtual scenario learning model effectively nurtures students' empathy and considerably enhances learners' awareness of campus bullying.

• • This study explores virtual scenario learning to address school bullying.
• • Virtual scenario learning with a multi-role experience can develop students' empathy.
• • The results are analyzed using lag sequential analysis.

1. Introduction

Campus bullying is a globally prevalent social issue that knows no cultural or national boundaries. In the past, campus bullying mainly occurred in classrooms where teachers had the opportunity to intervene and provide immediate assistance and counseling [ 1 ]. However, with the development of technology, cyberbullying has emerged in the virtual world and gradually extended to campuses, becoming a serious problem. Campus bullying can have psychological and physical effects on victims, including behavioral changes, difficulties in adaptation, and psychological disorders, and may even lead to suicide or self-harm. Therefore, schools usually address these issues through prevention activities, anti-bullying lectures, and the provision of instructional support tools. Research has shown that using experiential learning to understand the concept of bullying and learn strategies to prevent bullying can significantly improve students' ability to prevent bullying [ 2 , 3 ].

Virtual scenario learning has become a widely used instructional method in current digital education applications. Many studies have shown that experiential learning through role-playing can not only enhance learning effectiveness and motivation but also allow learners to gain a deeper understanding of the learning content. Furthermore, virtual scenario learning enables learners to connect their emotions and thoughts with real-life scenarios, thereby increasing self-awareness. Ferreira et al. [ 4 ] found that using virtual scenario learning to assess and recognize cyberbullying can increase adolescents' empathy towards victims.

In recent years, some studies have used first-person educational games to allow learners to experience learning by playing the role of a victim. Such studies have found that learners who already have an awareness of school bullying tend to perform better in these games [ 5 , 6 ]. However, for younger students with limited awareness of bullying, the effectiveness of educational games may be relatively limited. Additionally, role-playing as a victim might trigger negative emotions for the learners [ 7 ]. Therefore, most studies have begun to focus on raising awareness and empathy for bullying in schools from the perspective of bystanders, and utilizing the power of bystanders to prevent and respond to bullying [ 8 ]. These studies use scenario-based stories to allow students to engage in virtual learning from the perspective of bystanders, increasing their understanding of the consequences of bullying behavior. However, some studies have found that when students use the bystander role to experience scenarios, they might have difficulty engaging in certain situation and may have inadequate understanding of the severity of bullying [ 9 , 10 ].

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to combine the perspectives of both bystanders and victims and utilize a multi-Role Experience-based Virtual Scenario Learning Model. By doing so, learners can not only increase their awareness of the consequences of bullying behavior but also experience bullying scenarios from the perspective of victims, enabling them to empathize with the feelings of victims. Additionally, this approach can help to reduce negative emotional reactions when learners take on the role of victims. Furthermore, this approach can further enhance learners' understanding of bullying incidents and empathy towards victims while also equipping them with effective strategies to address the issue at hand. It is hoped that through this study, effective strategies and directions can be provided to reduce the occurrence of bullying and conflicts in the future. The research questions for this study are as follows.

Compared with the virtual scenario learning model using a single role experience, can the use of the Multi-Role Experience-based Virtual Scenario Learning Model improve the academic achievement of learners' awareness of school bullying?

Can the Multi-Role Experience-based Virtual Scenario Learning Model improve learners' empathy compared with the virtual scenario learning model that uses a single role experience?

Can the Multi-Role Experience-based Virtual Scenario Learning Model improve learners' Problem-solving tendency compared with the Virtual Scenario Learning Model using single-role experience?

2. Literature review

2.1. virtual scenario learning.

Virtual Scenario Learning, using Virtual Learning Environments, aims to enhance student learning through simulated scenarios. It focuses on improving practical skills and providing diverse learning resources, activities, and interactions [ [11] , [12] , [13] ]. These environments facilitate interaction, support self-directed learning, and offer diverse resources, despite certain limitations like technical constraints and maintenance costs [ 14 , 15 ].

Research highlights virtual scenario learning's effectiveness in improving student outcomes and motivation [ 11 , 16 ]. Emphasizing realism, interactivity, and diverse learning, it enhances problem-solving and decision-making skills through role-playing [ 12 , 14 ].

Campus bullying, including its extension into cyberspace, significantly impacts victims' physical and mental health [ 17 , 18 ]. Addressing this, virtual reality learning programs have shown effectiveness in reducing bullying and fostering empathy [ 2 , 19 ]. These programs improve situational adaptability and understanding of bullying's negative effects [ 1 , 3 ].

Overall, virtual reality learning is a potent tool against campus bullying, enhancing empathy and improving school environments. Its application has been effective across various educational levels, suggesting its potential as a universal solution to bullying [ 20 ].

2.2. Application of role-playing game in the prevention of school bullying

In virtual scenario learning, the design of the storyline and the learner's role are crucial [ 4 , 21 ]. Research shows that engaging story contexts help in deeper learning and empathy development, especially in cyberbullying scenarios [ 22 , 23 ]. Role-playing games have been effective in enhancing student motivation, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

Studies highlight the impact of the learner's perspective on understanding bullying. Role-playing as a victim can enhance awareness but may trigger negative emotions [ 7 , 24 ]. Conversely, the bystander perspective increases empathy but might lack engagement in the severity of bullying [ 8 , 25 ]. Calvo-Morata et al.'s [ 5 , 6 ] studies on educational games like “Conectado” show that first-person experiences can significantly improve understanding of bullying, though with emotional challenges.

The literature suggests that combining victim and bystander perspectives in role-playing enhances empathy and awareness of bullying consequences. This multi-role approach in virtual scenarios allows students to experience both perspectives, fostering a deeper understanding and motivation for proactive intervention in bullying situations.

3. A multi-role-based virtual learning approach

3.1. system structure.

This research uses the RPG Maker software to design a virtual learning system that incorporates multiple roles. The system architecture, as depicted in Fig. 1 , encompasses four principal components: the virtual scenario learning module, the learning resources module, the situation setting module, and the learning process analysis module. Within the virtual scenario learning module, three key aspects are highlighted. Firstly, the virtual scenario learning map scene provides a platform for the game's map environment. Secondly, the virtual scenario learning level tasks facilitate the inclusion of learning-based tasks within the game. Lastly, the virtual scenario learning bonus system introduces a mechanism to incentivize and reward learning achievements.

System structure.

The learning resources module encompasses two primary components. Firstly, the textbook tasks feature offers in-game tasks directly related to the learning material. Secondly, the textbook content and test questions section encompasses the learning materials and evaluation items incorporated within the game. Within the situation setting module, two fundamental elements are identified. Firstly, the bystander role assigns the player a spectator role within the game. Secondly, the victim role designates the player as a victim within the game environment. The learning process analysis module consists of two core sections. The first section, the learning process analysis module, primarily focuses on analyzing the player's educational progression within the game. The second section, the learning history record, primarily serves as a means to document the player's in-game behavior.

3.2. Multi-role design in virtual scenario learning system

Throughout the virtual scenario story, learners engage with learning and face challenges in accordance with the development of the storyline. In the virtual scenario learning mode, experienced through the role of the bystander (shown in Fig. 2 ), learners observe their peers being bullied and can choose from various solutions. Responding to the situation in the scenario, when the solution chosen by the learner cannot help the bullied companion (NPC), the learner will witness the consequences of the incident. In some scenario stories, a negative solution (escape) may be designed. When the learner makes a choice, they will witness the consequences of the scenario story, and they may be unable to help the victim. At this point, the system will display options such as seeking hints or assistance to help learners analyze the current situation. Afterwards, the system will allow the learner to re-select options, enabling them to make another choice until they choose the correct and appropriate solution. In the virtual scenario learning mode of the victim role experience (shown in Fig. 3 ), the learner will experience being bullied and blackmailed by the scenario role, and they can choose different ways to respond to the scenario. When the solution chosen by the learner cannot help themselves, they will witness the consequences of the event. At this point, the system will display options such as seeking prompts or assistance to help learners analyze the current situation. Subsequently, the system will allow the learner to re-select options, enabling them to make another choice until they choose the correct and appropriate solution.

The Bystander role scenario.

The Victim role scenario.

3.3. Player's role assignment design for experiential learning

The virtual scenarios in this study are divided into six major scenario stories (as illustrated in Fig. 4 ). In each scene, there are presentations and explanations of scenario stories. Some scenario stories will require learners to provide solutions, and the options will include two to three levels: correct solutions, incorrect solutions, and negative solutions. The differences in students' awareness of preventing bullying in school are recorded through learning behavior coding. The structure of the teaching material design is based on the case of education prevention and control of campus bullying as a reference. Aligned with its learning context, the difficulty of the teaching materials and topics progresses from shallow to deep. During the learning experience, it is essential to embody the characters presented in the story scenario. In the virtual scenario system, which integrates multiple role experiences, the roles of bystander and victim are alternately assigned in the scenario story. This is done to achieve authenticity and evoke the emotions experienced by the victim, while also minimizing the generation of negative emotions.

Scenario role assignment.

4. Experimental design

4.1. participants.

This study employs a quasi-experimental research design as the experimental research method, with a total of 56 students from two fourth-grade classes at a specific elementary school in Taipei City, Taiwan, as the research participants. In this study, one class was randomly assigned to the experimental group (27 participants, consisting of 12 males and 15 females), which utilized the virtual scenario learning mode combined with multiple role experiences. The other class served as the control group (29 participants, consisting of 13 males and 16 females), employing the virtual scenario learning mode with a single role experience. The learners in this grade have been placed in the S-shaped normal class based on their total semester scores. This indicates that the academic performance of each class is average, and the students have studied information courses and acquired basic information skills. Each semester, students participate in campaigns promoting friendly campuses, campus bullying prevention, and other relevant issues, providing them with foundational knowledge on these topics.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Research and Development Office of University of Taipei (approval number: IRB-2021-037) on June 29, 2022. Based on research ethics, this study has obtained consent forms signed by all students and their parents. Their personal information was hidden to protect their privacy. In addition, students voluntarily took part in the experiment and understood that this wouldn't affect their grades. They could withdraw from the experiment at any time.

4.2. Experimental procedure

To verify the effectiveness of the proposed research method, Fig. 5 showed the experimental procedure. At the outset, teachers dedicated the first week to spend 60 min promoting the content and course orientation of campus bullying prevention. Before the commencement of the learning activities, both groups of students spent 60 min completing a pre-test on empathy, problem-solving tendencies, and academic achievement related to preventing school bullying.

Experimental procedure.

After traditional classroom teaching, the experimental group engaged in the virtual scenario learning mode combined with multiple role experiences, whereas the control group experienced the virtual scenario learning mode with a single role. The instructional experiment lasted for three class periods, totaling 120 min, and took place in the computer classroom. Throughout the instructional process, learners independently operated computers. Interaction and conversation with peers were prohibited during class, ensuring full concentration on learning. The virtual scenario learning system recorded the learners' activities within the system. After the conclusion of the teaching experiment, both groups completed the post-test on learning achievement, post-questionnaire on empathy, and post-test on problem-solving tendencies related to preventing school bullying. This was done to assess whether there were differences or changes between the two groups of learners after the teaching experiment.

4.3. Measuring instruments

4.3.1. questionnaires for preventing campus bullying.

The pre-test and post-test questionnaires for evaluating the effectiveness of preventing campus bullying were created by the researcher using content from anti-bullying websites of various schools and the awareness-raising campaign series by the Ministry of Education. To ensure expert validity, three experienced elementary school teachers, each with over 10 years of teaching experience and a sustained commitment to student counseling, were invited to review the questions. After discussion, consolidation, and revision, the questions were finalized and utilized for the formal testing. The scoring criteria, including its questions and answers, are shown in Fig. 6 . The purpose of the test is to assess learners' understanding and application of the concept of improving awareness of campus bullying after receiving formal instruction from teachers. The test comprises four main themes: physical bullying, verbal bullying, relationship bullying, and cyberbullying, with a total of 20 questions. The multiple-choice questions consist of 9 questions, comprising 6 basic questions and 3 advanced questions, with a total score of 45 points. The true or false questions consist of 8 questions, including 6 basic questions and 2 advanced questions, with a total score of 40 points.The short-answer questions consist of 3 questions, with a total score of 15 points. The maximum score for the test is 100 points.

Scoring criteria form for quiz questions.

4.3.2. Questionnaire for empathy

The empathy pre- and post-questionnaires used in this study were adapted from the empathy questionnaire by Spreng et al. [ 26 ]. The questionnaire consists of 16 items, including 8 negative items. It employs a Likert scale with five response options: ‘Never,’ ‘Rarely,’ ‘Sometimes,’ ‘Often,’ and 'Always'. The Cronbach's α coefficient for the questionnaire was 0.85, indicating good internal consistency reliability for the empathy questionnaire used in this study. The empathy questionnaire was administered before and after the instructional experiment to explore whether there was a difference in empathy between the experimental group and the control group after engaging in a virtual reality learning experience that incorporated multiple role-playing scenarios.

4.3.3. Questionnaire for problem-solving tendency

The pre- and post-questionnaires on problem-solving tendencies used in this study were adapted from the problem-solving tendency questionnaire by Lai and Hwang [ 27 ]. The questionnaire demonstrates good internal consistency reliability with a Cronbach's α of 0.9, indicating the reliability of the adopted problem-solving tendency questionnaire in this study. The questionnaire comprises a total of 6 items, all of which are positive statements. It utilizes a Likert scale with five response options: ‘Strongly Disagree,’ ‘Disagree,’ ‘Neutral,’ ‘Agree,’ and ‘Strongly Agree. The problem-solving tendency questionnaire was administered before and after the teaching experiment. The purpose was to explore whether there was a difference in the problem-solving tendency of the learners in the experimental group and the control group after the virtual scenario learning model combined with multiple role experiences.

4.3.4. Behavior coding

To investigate the influence of learners' behavior and learning outcomes in virtual reality learning, this study incorporated a pre-designed behavior coding scheme into the virtual reality learning system and recorded the entire sequence of students' behaviors during the virtual reality learning process. After the virtual reality learning, a lag-sequential analysis was conducted to examine whether there was a significant relationship between the order of each behavior pattern.

To investigate the potential impact of the virtual scenario learning mode combined with multiple role experiences on students' learning behavior, the developed virtual scenario learning mode system incorporates a mechanism to record student behavior. The system captures specific behaviors and their corresponding times, which are then classified and coded based on the research objectives and virtual scenario design. Two teachers with experience in behavior analysis were invited for this purpose. Two teachers with experience in behavior analysis were invited for this purpose. Following discussions, behaviors in the virtual scenario were categorized into two groups: ‘related to the scenario story’ and ‘related to the scenario story but irrelevant.’ The learner's behavior sequence is automatically and comprehensively recorded throughout the virtual scenario learning process, offering a specific and in-depth understanding of the learner's learning behavior. The coding is illustrated in Fig. 7 .

Coding scheme.

4.3.5. Semi-structured interview

To delve into learners' experiences in the virtual scenario combined with multiple roles, interviews are conducted to understand their feelings and thoughts about bullying courses. This approach serves to supplement the lack of quantitative data on empathy and problem-solving tendencies. Therefore, this study adopts a semi-structured interview. The advantage of a semi-structured interview is that it allows for a more in-depth exploration of the topic based on the participants' answers [ 28 ]. Based on the data from the empathy and problem-solving questionnaires, three different research questions were formulated. Five questions pertained to empathy and the two role-switching experiences, while the other five focused on problem-solving tendencies and the two role-switching experiences, making a total of ten questions. Twelve participants (6 girls, 6 boys) were randomly selected from the questionnaire survey subjects.

The interview was only conducted after the teaching experiment. The aim was to integrate the data analysis and behavioral pattern results of empathy and problem-solving tendencies among learners in the experimental group within the virtual scenario learning model. This exploration focused on the impact of the virtual scenario learning model combined with multiple role experiences, particularly examining the effect of the two role-alternating experiences.

5. Results and discussion

5.1. analysis of academic achievement.

In order to analyze the effect of different virtual scenario learning modes on learners' learning achievement, this study employed a one-factor ANCOVA analysis to examine students' test scores. The analysis results after the two groups of tests are presented in Table 1 . The adjusted mean of the experimental group is 95.47 with a standard deviation of 8.23, whereas the adjusted mean of the control group is 90.63 with a standard deviation of 8.20. The table reveals significant differences in the learning achievements of learners in the virtual scenario learning modes with different experiences, with F (1, 54) = 12.57, p  = 0.001 < 0.01. Additionally, η2  = 0.192, indicating a large effect size [ 29 ]. Cohen [ 29 ] proposed that η2 greater than 0.01 indicates a small effect size, η2 greater than 0.06 suggests a medium effect size, and η2 greater than 0.15 reflects a large effect size. The above results indicate that the virtual scenario learning mode, which combines multiple role experiences, significantly outperforms the virtual scenario learning mode with a single role experience in preventing campus bullying learning achievement.

The ANCOVA results of academic achievement.

Regarding academic achievement, the virtual scenario-based learning model that combines multiple role-playing experiences showed significantly better results in helping learners prevent campus bullying compared to the virtual scenario-based learning model that only utilizes a single role-playing experience. Compared to learning only from the bystander's perspective, experiencing scenarios with multiple roles can deepen learners' understanding of the consequences and correct solutions, while also reducing any unpleasant feelings that may arise during the learning process. The results of the behavioral pattern analysis indicate that the experimental group had the experience of being a victim during the learning process. As a result, they tended to actively search for clues and solve the dilemma in the scenario story after answering incorrectly. On the other hand, the learners in the control group all learned from the bystander's perspective in the virtual scenario learning and had less empathy for the victim. Therefore, they tended to choose a passive way to respond after answering incorrectly. These results are consistent with previous studies [ 6 , 8 , 30 ]. Combining a virtual reality learning mode with multiple role experiences can increase learners' awareness of the consequences of different scenarios, reduce negative emotions during the learning process, and ultimately improve learners' learning achievements.

5.2. Analysis of empathy

To analyze the impact of different experiences in virtual scenario learning modes on learners' empathy, this study employs a single-factor ANCOVA analysis to examine students' test scores. Table 2 presents the analysis results after the two groups of tests. The adjusted mean of the experimental group is 54.45 with a standard deviation of 7.26, whereas the adjusted mean of the control group is 51.19 with a standard deviation of 4.28. The table indicates a significant difference in the empathy of learners in the virtual scenario learning mode with different experiences, with F (1, 54) = 4.178, p  = 0.046 < 0.05. Additionally, η2  = 0.073, suggesting a medium effect size [ 29 ]. Cohen [ 29 ] proposed that η2 greater than 0.01 indicates a small effect size, η2 greater than 0.06 suggests a medium effect size, and η2 greater than 0.15 reflects a large effect size. The above results indicate that the virtual scenario learning mode, which combines multiple role experiences, significantly outperforms the virtual scenario learning mode with a single role experience in promoting empathy towards preventing campus bullying.

The ANCOVA results of Empathy.

Regarding learners' empathy, a virtual reality learning mode that combines multiple role experiences significantly outperforms a virtual reality learning mode that only uses a single role experience. Compared to experiencing learning only from a bystander's perspective, using a virtual reality mode that combines multiple role experiences can deepen learners' awareness of consequences and correct solutions, while also reducing unpleasant feelings during the learning process. According to the interview, the learners in the experimental group said that when they were bullied, they would feel a little angry and sad, so they would always want to choose the correct answer and want to know the consequences of the scenario story. When the scenario story presented others being bullied, sometimes, they would want to help them so that they would not be bullied like themselves. Compared to learning through watching videos, using a virtual reality learning mode that incorporates multiple role experiences can promote learners' empathy. Virtual reality enhances students' anti-bullying attitudes, sense of justice, empathy, and positive bystander behaviors, providing a better learning experience and triggering students' awareness of campus bullying. These results resonate with other studies [ 6 , 8 , 23 , 31 ]. Compared to a single role experience, incorporating multiple role experiences allows learners to empathize more with the feelings of the parties involved and promotes learners' positive behavior.

5.3. Analysis of problem-solving tendency

To analyze the impact of different experiences in virtual scenario learning modes on learners' problem-solving tendencies, this study employs a single-factor ANCOVA analysis to examine students' test scores. Table 3 presents the analysis results after the two groups of tests. The adjusted mean of the experimental group is 4.07 with a standard deviation of 0.833, while the adjusted mean of the control group is 3.69 with a standard deviation of 0.994. The table indicates a significant difference in the problem-solving tendency of learners in the virtual scenario learning mode with different experiences, with F (1, 54) = 7.977, p  = 0.007 < 0.01. Additionally, η2  = 0.131, suggesting a large effect size [ 29 ]. Cohen [ 29 ] proposed that η2 greater than 0.01 indicates a small effect size, η2 greater than 0.06 suggests a medium effect size, and η2 greater than 0.15 reflects a large effect size. The above results indicate that the virtual scenario learning mode, which combines multiple role experiences, significantly outperforms the virtual scenario learning mode with a single role experience in promoting problem-solving tendencies towards preventing campus bullying.

The ANCOVA results of Problem-solving tendency.

Regarding problem-solving tendencies, a virtual reality learning mode that incorporates multiple role experiences significantly outperforms a virtual reality learning mode that uses a single role experience. Studies show that role-playing promotes collaborative learning strategies, such as peer collaboration and seeking help, which enhances learners' willingness to solve problems. Research has shown that when learning in a role-playing context, it can promote knowledge retention and allow students to face problems based on real scenarios and handle them in an appropriate manner, reducing the anxiety they may experience in the scenario, effectively enhancing learners' problem-solving abilities. These findings are similar to those of other studies [ [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] ].

5.4. Learning behavior pattern result

The lag-sequential analysis results in this study revealed that in the virtual scenario learning mode, which combines multiple role experiences, 27 learners exhibited a total of 7772 behaviors, whereas in the virtual scenario learning mode with a single role experience, 29 learners exhibited a total of 7235 behaviors. As shown in Fig. 8 , Fig. 9 , it can be observed that the significant behaviors in the learning behavior sequence transitions were similar between the experimental group and the control group. In the virtual scenario learning mode, both groups of learners were able to participate in learning within the virtual environment and make choices after understanding the contextual story. Next, we compared the effects of different virtual scenario learning modes on learners' virtual scenario experience behaviors and identified the differences in behavior patterns between the two groups of learners. Fig. 10 illustrates the difference in behavior patterns between the experimental group and the control group.

Behavioral patterns of the experimental group.

Behavioral patterns of the control group.

Behavioral pattern differences between the experimental group and the control group.

In the experimental group, the virtual scenario learning mode that combined multiple role experiences allowed learners to assume the roles of both bystander and victim in various scenario stories. Therefore, during the learning process, learners experience being a victim, and when they answered incorrectly (In), they would try to find clues (Hi) to solve the dilemma in the current scenario story. It can be seen that allowing learners to experience learning from the perspective of a victim can deepen their learning of the correct solution methods. The control group, on the other hand, experienced learning from a single perspective as observers and were unable to empathize with the victim. As a result, when they answered incorrectly, they chose passive responses, indicating that the majority of the control group tended to deal with bullying situations in a negative way. This caused them to answer incorrectly and lose confidence and motivation while learning. The learners were also unable to find the correct help and clues, gradually giving up on learning or believing that choosing the correct solution was not that important. In the scenario story, the learners in the experimental group actively sought solutions (Is), obtained clues (Hi), answered questions (An), and chose the correct solutions (Co). This shows that incorporating the victim's perspective into scenario learning allows learners to experience the feelings, leading them to actively seek solutions. Therefore, when encountering difficult problems, they will actively seek help and try to solve them. On the other hand, students in the control group experienced the same perspective, causing them to deal with situations in a negative way even if they answered incorrectly, rather than actively and positively attempting to solve the problem.

After the learners in the experimental group showed negative behavior and responses (Nb), they then answered the questions (An), indicating that after choosing to respond negatively, they were willing to try again and select effective methods to solve the current situation. Because learners can experience different perspectives in different scenario stories, they can effectively experience and learn through the presentation of stories from different angles, which is why they wanted to try the solution method again. The design of the scenario stories and the content of the teaching materials can provide a safe and reassuring learning environment for the learners in the experimental group and help them build confidence in trying. In contrast, after showing negative behavior and responses, the learners in the control group did not actively answer the questions. This shows that presenting the experience from the perspective of a bystander alone does not encourage learners to think about actively solving the current situation, making it difficult for them to seek help and prompts and to gain confidence in trying to solve problems. From the above, it is clear that the learners in the experimental group can effectively use the clues and help provided in the scenario stories and enjoy the authenticity of the stories, demonstrating their behavior of actively solving problems.

In the control group, learners tend to choose negative responses (Nb) after answering incorrectly (In), indicating that the majority of the control group tends to adopt a passive approach when facing bullying situations. As observers, learners only see the surface of the scenario, and if they are not willing to understand the truth and the whole picture, they will not be able to find a solution to the dilemma. This lack of understanding can cause learners to lose confidence and motivation to seek the truth, and eventually give up on learning. After finding and obtaining clues (Hi), learners in the control group still tend to review the consequences (Re) of the scenario. This indicates that learners in the control group may have difficulty understanding the victim's feelings without a high level of empathy. Therefore, in order to find clues, learners in the control group tend to repeat the process of reviewing the consequences of the situation in the scenario story, so as to continue their learning. From the above, it can be seen that learners in the control group tend to be more passive in their learning, with less proactive exploration of the situation in the scenario story. They may not be as sensitive to the presentation of the dilemma and tend to engage in behaviors such as walking around and examining other objects in the scenario. Their actions mainly focus on reviewing the scenario story and its consequences, with less proactive exploration.

5.5. Interviews result

According to the interviews, the learners in the experimental group said that when they were bullied, they would try to seek help to find a solution so that they could be rescued, and they would also want to know the consequences of the scenario story. When other people were bullied in the scenario story, because they have the experience of being bullied before, they want to take the initiative to help the bullied person. So, they will continue to look for clues and help in the scenario stories, so that the bullied person will not be bullied again. Research has shown that combining multiple role-playing experiences in virtual environments can promote a positive attitude among learners, guide them towards deeper thinking, and effectively enhance their problem-solving abilities.

6. Conclusion

This study developed a virtual scenario-based learning model that combines multiple role-playing experiences to help learners increase their awareness of campus bullying. The purpose was to analyze the learning behavior of learners in the virtual scenario-based learning model and understand whether the changes in the learners' experiential processes varied with the multiple role-playing experiences. The findings suggest that the multi-role virtual scenario learning model effectively nurtures students' empathy and considerably enhances learners' awareness of campus bullying. Experiencing scenarios from both victim and bystander perspectives deepens understanding of consequences, correct solutions, and reduces negative emotions. Role-playing promotes collaborative learning strategies and real-scenario problem-solving skills. This study provides new insights and empirical evidence for game-based learning in bullying prevention education.

7. Recommendations

Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that virtual scenario-based learning incorporating multiple role experiences be more widely applied in bullying prevention education. Game designers and educators should consider designing virtual learning environments that allow learners to alternate between victim and bystander roles to maximize the positive effects on empathy, awareness of consequences, and motivation to intervene. The multi-role approach can be extended to other educational contexts and disciplinary fields to enhance the impact and reach of game-based learning.

Furthermore, educators should provide sufficient guidance to ensure that students can effectively learn within the virtual scenarios. This guidance includes providing clear instructions, encouraging reflection and discussion, and offering emotional support to learners when needed.

8. Implication

The contribution of this study is based on social constructivism, which proposes a virtual scenario learning model combined with multiple role experiences to enhance campus bullying awareness. From the analysis of behavior patterns, it is found that learners who combine multiple role experiences experience the authenticity of the virtual scenario story through the victim role in the learning process. At the same time, improving empathy in the experience of bystanders can actively help others out of difficulties and establish a friendly campus environment. The above are the main findings and conclusions of this study. It is expected to provide new perspectives and empirical evidence for research on campus bullying and game-based learning, and to provide useful references for educators and game designers in game-based learning practices. In addition, the methods and results of this study may also contribute to the future, with wider applications in other disciplinary fields, making contributions to the development and promotion of game-based learning.

9. Limitations and future research suggestions

Lastly, with regard to future research suggestions, this study is limited by having a fixed venue and a game system design that can only implement teaching experiments within a limited range. It is suggested to extend the experimental or observation time to more deeply explore the effects of learners' awareness and to investigate future situations facing similar situations. In addition, the subjects of this study were limited to 56 students in two fourth-grade classes at a municipal elementary school in Taipei City, Taiwan. It is suggested to apply this type of experiential virtual learning mode to different age groups, regions, and individuals with different backgrounds to explore differences in experimental results. Furthermore, it is recommended to increase the content of the experimental scenario stories to further explore the effects of virtual scenario learning and learners' empathy. Finally, the development tool for the virtual scenario learning environment in this study is the RPG Maker VX Ace software, which falls under desktop VR. This may reduce the level of immersion; therefore, it is recommended to combine it with other VR wearable devices to enhance the user's immersion in the digital environment.

Ethics statement

This study was reviewed and approved by Research and Development Office of University of Taipei, with the approval number: IRB-2021-037. Based on research ethics, this study has obtained consent forms signed by all students and their parents. Their personal information was hidden to protect their privacy. In addition, students voluntarily took part in the experiment and understood that this wouldn't affect their grades. They could withdraw from the experiment at any time.

Data availability statement

Credit authorship contribution statement.

Kai-Hsiang Yang: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Validation, Supervision, Resources, Methodology, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Yi Lu: Software, Investigation.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Kai-Hsiang Yang reports was provided by National Science and Technology Council of the Republic of China [grant number MOST 110-2511-H-152-002-MY3].

Appendix A Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e31044 .

Appendix A. Supplementary data

The following is the Supplementary data to this article:

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Flagler Palm Coast High School Future Problem Solving team ready to tackle a global issue

Ava mello, victoria dasilva-carvalheira, arianna slaughter and liam lafferty won in global issues team writing at state and now they're heading to the international competition..

• By Brent Woronoff
• | 8:12 p.m. May 28, 2024
• Leave a comment

• Palm Coast Observer

Four Flagler Palm Coast High School sophomores solved the autonomous vehicle problem at the Future Problem Solving state competition. Now they will try their hand at solving the air quality conundrum.

Ava Mello, Victoria DaSilva-Carvalheira, Arianna Slaughter and Liam Lafferty won first place at state in the Global Issues Team Writing Senior Division and are heading to the International Conference on June 5-9 at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

The International Competition will bring together over 2,000 champion problem solvers from over 14 countries, including 40 competitors from four Flagler County schools. This is the third in a series on the Flagler students who were invited to Internationals.

The Global Issues team, coached by Melissa Castaneda, will have two hours to come up with a solution to a future scenario involving air quality, this year’s international topic, using the problem solvers’ six-step process.

“We just go through the process where we identify challenges and then find a main one,” Mello said. “And then we identify solutions and we rank (them). We write a whole action plan based on the solution that scored the highest.”

Their solution to the autonomous vehicle problem? Magnet brakes.

“The magnet brakes would be installed on every autonomous vehicle on the road,” DaSilva-Carvalheira said. “And then if a collision was inevitable, the magnets would be activated to repel the cars away from one another.”

The team members admit they don’t take the competition too seriously. They just enjoy the process.

“Honestly, before states we didn't do much research,” Slaughter said. “We did some the day before, but I think that kind of helps us because we can figure it out while we're doing it. You could research everything and still not have a good solution, because it's really about problem solving skills and working together as a team.”

Slaughter and Mello have been working together on FPS teams since they were fifth graders at Old Kings Elementary School.

“In the beginning, we started with Community Problem Solving. But in middle school we transitioned to writing Global Issues,” Mello said.

As they work to come up with their action plan, the four throw out ideas. 

“We take them like, there’s no stupid ideas,” Mello said.

“Our group is just full of giggles,” DaSilva-Carvalheira said. “I think we're probably one of the louder groups when we're in competition. We just have to quiet each other down, because we don't want to get in trouble.”

Lafferty was absent from the interview for this article. DaSilva-Carvalheira said he is very creative when they bounce around ideas. He is the only one of the team who has been to the International Conference before.

“He's told us that he really wants to do the talent show and sing Buddy Holly,” DaSilva-Carvalheira said. “That's about all he's giving us, but he went for Scenario Writing last year, so he doesn't have much advice pertaining to Global Issues.”

Other activities the group is looking forward to, outside of the competition, are the dance and gift trading. Each state or country in the competition brings a gift to trade. The Florida teams, they said, are bringing plastic and rubber-ducky flamingos, sunglasses and pens and pencils.

“I’m looking forward to meeting people,” Mello said. “I've never really gone this far away for a competition. So, I think it's going to be a fun experience, and we're probably going to learn a lot, and hopefully it'll help us improve, because this won't be our last time going.”

Brent Woronoff

Brent Woronoff is the associate editor of the Palm Coast and Ormond Beach Observers. He has been in the business more than 41 years, nearly 30 with the Daytona Beach News-Journal. He is a former assistant sports editor at the News-Journal and former sports editor at the St. Augustine Record.

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• Our Mission

3 Key Elements of a School Turnaround Effort

An award-winning principal describes how he works to steer change, especially at struggling schools.

School turnaround , the effort to foster success in a struggling school, is a complex process requiring a delicate yet radical transformation of nearly all facets of school life—from curriculum to instruction to culture. 

It’s even harder when a leader is new to a school, as is often the case. They must build meaningful and collaborative relationships, respect the expertise of those already in the building, and foster trust with the whole community—while avoiding efforts that might appear to be rooted in saviorism .

To understand what it takes to navigate this work, I spoke with Kevin Sotomayor, recipient of the 2023 K–12 Dive Award for Principal of the Year and current leader of Isaac Middle School in Phoenix, Arizona. Sotomayor has dedicated his career to school transformation, not only leading several turnaround efforts but also starting a school of his own—as he says, “ground up”—before joining Isaac. 

Sotomayor told me how he uses data, deep listening, and direct communication to drive change as a leader.

BRITTANY COLLINS: How do you go about facilitating a school turnaround?

KEVIN SOTOMAYOR: It starts with the culture and the leadership. You gotta figure out who you are: What are your nonnegotiables? What is your true north? I recommend Bill George’s True North —a great book from the business world. Be very clear and consistent articulating your true north with your staff. You’re the compass.

Leading a turnaround also requires a culture of listening, of understanding before we react. The school I’m at now, we’ve had this incredible transformation, and I hold on to the vision, the understanding. How did I get it? I started with individual meetings with every returning staff member and with students. I need to know who I’m talking to, who I’m working with, what their expectations are and aren’t, what they want to do. 

From there, it’s easy to see how we start to move forward. You will be told exactly what needs to happen and how you need to move forward, especially by the kids.

.css-1ynlp5m{position:relative;width:100%;height:56px;margin-bottom:30px;content:'';} .css-2tyqqs *{display:inline-block;font-family:museoSlab-500,'Arial Narrow','Arial','Helvetica','sans-serif';font-size:24px;font-weight:500;line-height:34px;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.8px;-moz-letter-spacing:0.8px;-ms-letter-spacing:0.8px;letter-spacing:0.8px;}.css-2tyqqs *{display:inline-block;font-family:museoSlab-500,'Arial Narrow','Arial','Helvetica','sans-serif';font-size:24px;font-weight:500;line-height:34px;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.8px;-moz-letter-spacing:0.8px;-ms-letter-spacing:0.8px;letter-spacing:0.8px;} We have beginning-of-year, middle-of-year, and end-of-year data. And of course the state assessment. But I would rather lay my money on, “Teacher, tell me how this kid is doing in class. Are they engaged?”  .css-1ycc0ui{display:inline-block !important;font-family:'canada-type-gibson','Arial','Verdana','sans-serif';font-size:14px;line-height:27px;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.8px;-moz-letter-spacing:0.8px;-ms-letter-spacing:0.8px;letter-spacing:0.8px;text-transform:uppercase;padding-top:24px;margin-bottom:0 !important;}.css-1ycc0ui::before{content:'—';margin-right:9px;color:black;font-size:inherit;} Kevin Sotomayor

COLLINS: What advice have you received from students?

SOTOMAYOR: Just be real. At one of the middle schools I was at, this young lady was in danger of getting kicked out. I took her on as a mentee. We started meeting, and she was always so respectful. We had great conversations. One day, I went, “What’s the problem? Your teachers always send you to me saying you’re disrespectful. You don’t listen. You just do what you want to do. But if I ask you to do something, you might question it, but you do it. What’s the deal?”

She looked me dead in the eye and said, “Because when you ask me how I’m doing in the morning, you mean it. You really want to know. They don’t want to know. They’re just saying it to say it.” 

Kids can smell disingenuousness. 

When I first came to my current school, the kids said, “You’re gonna leave. We know everyone does.” I had to prove myself to them. I heard what they were telling me—they knew abandonment. So I showed up. I listened. I talked to them: “What do you guys want? What do you expect?”

They told me everything I needed to know. And now that the school has really turned around, the kids are like, “Oh, you meant it. You didn’t leave.” 

COLLINS: Turning back to the idea of a true north or vision for a school, how do you keep your staff focused on that?

SOTOMAYOR: Really taking them through “Here’s where we are, but this is not where we’re gonna stay, so what do we need to do collaboratively to move forward?” We focused on establishing and then living our core values. They are present in everything we do. We often reflect on our practices, and if they do not reflect one of our core values, then we question why we are doing it. 

Teachers said they didn’t have enough support when it came to behavior—it felt like the prior administration wasn’t visible. So I said to my AP, “Here’s your office, here’s my office—say goodbye to them. We can’t be in here unless it’s for a meeting—we have to be visible.” We literally walked hallways and classrooms, utilizing our phones to keep up with texts and emails. Most of the time, we worked at our desks after our students and staff were gone for the day. 

Once we showed our commitment, the staff bought in; they’re with us now. 

COLLINS: What turnaround programs and policies have been most impactful for you?

SOTOMAYOR: Meeting kids where they are. But that doesn’t mean we’re in sixth grade teaching third-grade curriculum—it means we have to scaffold appropriately. We have focused on student discourse. We wanted student-to-student interaction, so we provided professional development on that. We didn’t start with kids—it’s been all about the adults. We really hit growth mindset first: “Do you believe that our kids can perform at this level? If you do but don’t know how to get there, great—helping with that is our job.” We hired instructional coaches to bring teachers along, help with professional development, go into the classroom, and lead coaching cycles.

A principal at another middle school and I created cross-site PLCs. We rearranged our master schedules and worked with district strategists and our assistant superintendent. All content areas release for prep at the same time across three schools now. We carved out an hour for teams to meet as sixth-grade social studies across districts, eighth-grade math, etc. 

That builds teacher leadership and ownership, so it’s not us telling teachers something is gonna work, it’s people in classrooms with them telling them it works. We combine instructional practices and learn from each other. We’re in our fourth year of that, and we’ve seen great gains. 

COLLINS: How do you measure those gains? I’m sure it’s not immediate and not as simple as looking at test scores. What’s your approach?

SOTOMAYOR: Over the years, it’s been about a story—and data. I joke that I’m surprised I got hired, because they always ask in interviews, “How do you use data?” I always answer that I don’t put a lot of weight into what the tests supposedly tell us—that this is how smart or not our kids are.

Yes, tests can give us great jumping-off points, because if we realize kids are scoring low in vocabulary, we need to ask why. Is it truly the vocabulary, or their comprehension? Is it a certain grade level? Demographic? 

We use iReady, so we have beginning-of-year, middle-of-year, and end-of-year data. And of course the state assessment. But I would rather lay my money on “Teacher, tell me how this kid is doing in class. Are they engaged?” Let’s look at their work consistently. Are they doing really well in class and just tanking on the test? Then we need to help with test-taking strategies. 

With any turnaround, academics are huge, but so is instruction. I have to look at the staff I’m inheriting, their evaluations, and as many years of academic data as I can. Educators talk about the whole child—part of my job is trying to find the whole school. There’s culture data, demographic data, academic data, instructional data. We start to look at it from all angles to find leverage points where if we hit them right, they’ll domino. 

COLLINS: What misconceptions have you encountered regarding turnarounds?

SOTOMAYOR: “These poor kids! Oh, their background! We can’t push them that hard.” A lot of our kids are coming in with adverse childhood experiences—I think some of our kids have almost every single one—but they’re showing up every day.

That’s one of the biggest misconceptions, that these kids can’t perform. They absolutely can. Because of their backgrounds, they didn’t have the preschool everyone else did. It’s our job to help them overcome that. They are unbelievably smart. We hold them back when we feel like we have to dumb things down. 

We’re going to teach with the scaffolds that are appropriate to help them access what they need to know. It’s not the kids—it’s always the adults, and 90 percent of the time it’s not intentional. We gotta hold high expectations, and students will meet us there.

COLLINS: Returning to your idea of nonnegotiables, what are some of yours?

SOTOMAYOR: Number one: We have to believe in our kids. We have to believe that they really can do it. They may not be there yet, but they can get there, and they will. Number two: We have to be learners ourselves. If we think we know it all, we’re done.

This interview has been edited for brevity, clarity, and flow.