Abstract
Students today routinely conduct research in the digital world to solve problems in daily life and in learning tasks. Although research to date has proposed different models to describe the processes of information problem solving (IPS), little is known about the cognitive patterns demonstrated in the processes, particularly the iterative nature of IPS and the driving factors behind iterations. The current study employed the lens of a self-regulated problem-solving model to develop an in-depth understanding of learners’ IPS processes. Analysis and cross comparisons of three students’ on-screen research activities, think-aloud articulations, artifacts, and interviews revealed three representative patterns for performing an IPS task: reasoning-driven, prior knowledge/task-driven, and information-driven. These different patterns manifest qualitative differences in the three students’ research behaviors and iterations of problem-solving stages. The findings afford an in-depth understanding of the cognitive dimension of IPS, and yield important implications for scaffolding learners in effective IPS.
Highlights
The importance of information literacy is shown by its appearance in the standards at all levels of education (e.g., Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2007; Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2006)
Using the problem representation (PR)-solution generation (SG) model (Ge et al, 2016) as a cognitive framework for ill-structured problem solving, the current study sought to understand the iterative nature of information problem solving (IPS) and the driving factors behind the iterations
By examining evolving problem-solving stages (PR-SG’s) as “snapshots” of dynamic, self-regulative IPS processes, the study afforded an in-depth understanding on how students embarked on and defined an IPS task, and how their task definitions evolved towards a final solution
Summary
The importance of information literacy is shown by its appearance in the standards at all levels of education (e.g., Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2007; Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2006). When domain knowledge is lacking, solvers often rely on self-regulative strategies to facilitate ill-structured problem solving, as they monitor and reflect on progresses, errors or difficulties, and revise their approaches (Glaser & Chi, 1988; Hong & Choi, 2011). PR is critical in ill-structured problem solving, because once a plausible PR is established, it feeds and serves as input into the subsequent stage - SG, where the problem solver identifies tools and resources, and applies relevant knowledge, strategies, and procedures to generate a viable solution. The SR-PS model (Ge et al, 2016) provides a framework to analyze and understand learners’ evolving problem definitions and ensuing solutions as they perform an ill-structured IPS task. How do learners’ problem-solving stages (PR-SG’s) iterate throughout the process of solving an information problem?
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