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The effects of case libraries on problem solving
Author(s) -
HernandezSerrano J.,
Jonassen D.H.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of computer assisted learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.583
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2729
pISSN - 0266-4909
DOI - 10.1046/j.0266-4909.2002.00010.x
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , control (management) , representation (politics) , mathematics education , phenomenon , test (biology) , psychology , computer science , group (periodic table) , artificial intelligence , epistemology , philosophy , chemistry , organic chemistry , political science , law , paleontology , politics , biology
The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of providing access to a case library of related stories while undergraduates solved ill‐structured problems. While solving complex food product development problems, the experimental group accessed experts' stories of similar, previously solved problems; the comparable group accessed fact sheets (expository representation of stories' content); and the control group accessed text selected at random from a textbook dealing with issues unrelated to the stories. On multiple‐choice questions assessing processes related to problem solving (prediction, inferences, explanations, etc.), experimental students out‐performed the comparable and control groups. Performance on short‐answer questions also assessing problem‐related skills was not significantly different, in part because of test fatigue. Analysis of interviews identified a number of factors that students used in deciding how to apply their study strategies, including causal factors, grounding phenomenon, grounding in context, and outcomes.