Collaboration, Inquiry, Problem Solving and

Design~Jennifer Crosson !
Jennifer Stooke-Crosson posted Jan 21, 2018 7:14 PM
!
! After reading Jonassen, Spiro & DeSchryver's articles,
watching the film by Johnson and weighing in on many of my
peers revelations many thoughts came flooding into my mind.
I was unable to make sense of all the information bombarding
me at once in the tangled webs in my head. I immediately
thought this is what my students must feel like when faced
with all the complex problems we as educators are presenting
them with!
So I tried to make sense of the mess in my head by falling
back on what Jonassen, Spiro and DeSchryver term as well-
structured tools that I had been taught, have adapted, and
have learned through experience what tool works best for
"me" for the purpose at hand. First, I wrote point form notes
on each argument and let my mind try and make connections.
This took a period of time. I noticed that I started becoming
panicked that I couldn't just sit down and write my response. It
wasn't until I realized that I needed to digest and collaborate
with my peers for a time before I could work through the
problem. Eventually, I used one of my "aha's" as a starting
point to try and connect points from each argument that
resonated with me. It was a messy, time consuming process
with a multitude of paper with scribbles, half written thoughts
and a very obvious lack of direction. Yet, through this "messy"
or as Spiro and DeSchryver and Johanssen term as an ill
constructed process I slowly designed a construct that
allowed me to formulate my thoughts into a structured or
accepted means to express myself.
 It occurred to me that Jonanssen's point that educators
have not been able to accurately articulate through structured
tools how to impart the skills needed to solve abstract or
complex problems is because you can't. What I discovered,
through analyzing my process of unpacking and making
sense of what I learned through the readings is that you can
perhaps "explain" the process through words but the actual
"doing" of the process doesn't follow any consistent set of
rules or continuum that can be used exactly the same way or
consistently to solve every complex problem we will
encounter.
As Jonassen states, "problem solving is not a uniform
activity, with equivalent content, form or processes".Therefore,
I wonder if we aren't "getting stuck" trying to make a square
peg fit into a round hole? Instead, maybe we should
concentrate on the "process" of problem solving that includes
collaboration and time to find designs that show or model
different routes and skills that will aid in complex (ill
structured) problems. So perhaps the answer to how to teach
structure in unstructured domains lies in the the "method".
Spiro and DeSchryver speak to this in their constructivism
argument that ill structured domains require ill structured or
constructivist approaches. Maybe educators can't implicitly
teach problem solving with structure to students but they can
provide authentic opportunities to collaborate and work
through or design constructs that will enable them to
formulate tools that work for them in problem solving.
Perhaps educators can't measure these skills in terms of
right or wrong as on a test but must respect the process and
measure success in terms of individual growth reported by
students in their refections and in how they approach and
mature in their problem solving abilities. As Johnson
expressed in his film, often innovators and problem solvers do
so through long term practise, in real life situations and don't
always find the "missing pieces" to problems until they
collaborate with others that cross their paths throughout their
lives. Maybe we shouldn't have expectations that learners
must possess a certain set of reasoning skills at a prescribed
time and if they don't we have failed them. Maybe should
celebrate the skills they "have" acquired and encourage the
sharing of what they "have" learned at each stage of their
learning development. Maybe then we as educators will feel
we have been successful in teaching ill structured skills in ill
structured domains.