Teaching advanced undergraduate classes in a problem-solving context: The Cognitive Sherlock Approach

Abstract

Engaging students in deep learning, especially in advanced undergraduate courses, can be challenging. Understanding individual concepts and their relations is key, as misunderstanding can hinder the uptake of future ideas. Students’ need to engage is addressed in the proposed Cognitive Sherlock Approach—a teaching method that encourages students to become detectives of their cognitive/thinking processes while solving a problem. This method involves presenting a problem-solving scenario that students revisit with each new concept, employing targeted teaching strategies to sustain engagement and reinforce individual concepts and their links. The approach utilizes various pedagogical strategies, including “Meta-Questions,” structured concept maps, structured group activities, a big-picture overview of the course, and a comprehensive review at the end. The success of this approach is largely dependent on the teacher’s efforts to establish a core course objective within a problem-solving context and to provide students with structured concepts maps to facilitate deeper student learning.