Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the role of exploration strategies students used in the first phase of problem solving. The sample for the study was drawn from 3rd- to 12th-grade students (aged 9–18) in Hungarian schools (n = 4,371). Problems designed in the MicroDYN approach with different levels of complexity were administered to the students via the eDia online platform. Logfile analyses were performed to ascertain the impact of strategy use on the efficacy of problem solving. Students' exploration behavior was coded and clustered through Latent Class Analyses. Several theoretically effective strategies were identified, including the vary-one-thing-at-a-time (VOTAT) strategy and its sub-strategies. The results of the analyses indicate that the use of a theoretically effective strategy, which extract all information required to solve the problem, did not always lead to high performance. Conscious VOTAT strategy users proved to be the best problem solvers followed by non-conscious VOTAT strategy users and non-VOTAT strategy users. In the primary school sub-sample, six qualitatively different strategy class profiles were distinguished. The results shed new light on and provide a new interpretation of previous analyses of the processes involved in complex problem solving. They also highlight the importance of explicit enhancement of problem-solving skills and problem-solving strategies as a tool for knowledge acquisition in new contexts during and beyond school lessons.
Highlights
Computer-based assessment has presented new challenges and opportunities in educational research
This study focuses on problem solving, especially on complex problem solving (CPS), which reflects higher-order cognitive processes
The focus is on the MicroDYN approach, which is a specific form of complex problem solving (CPS) in interactive situations using minimal complex systems (Funke, 2014)
Summary
Computer-based assessment has presented new challenges and opportunities in educational research. We split the effectiveness of the exploration strategy and the usage and application of the information extracted to be able to solve the problem and control the system with respect to the target values based on the causal knowledge acquired. According to findings from a study with 240 university students, the performance differences observed in the context of the semantic effect were associated with differences in the systematicity of the exploration behavior, and the systematicity of the exploration behavior was reflected in a specific sequence of interventions They argued that it is only the VOTAT strategy—supplemented with the vary-none-at-a-time strategy in the case of noting autonomous changes—that creates informative system state transitions which enable problem solvers to derive knowledge of the causal structure of a complex, dynamic system. In their experiment with 91 6thgrade students, they explored how students were able to estimate the impact of five independent variables simultaneously on a particular phenomenon, and they found that most students considered only one or two variables as possible causes
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
