1.3 Educator’s notes
Learning Objectives
After completing Problem solving, Trial and error, The 5 Whys, Working backwards, Mind mapping, Freewriting, and Reflecting on problems, learners should be able to:
- Describe how problem-solving strategies contribute to effective problem resolution and evaluate the critical thinking skills involved in problem-solving processes.
- Explain the significance of problem-solving skills across various contexts, including everyday life and diverse professions.
- Differentiate between various problem-solving strategies and techniques and demonstrate an understanding of their suitability for different types of problems.
- Understand the necessity of identifying the root cause of a problem and demonstrate effective questioning to identify the root cause of a real or hypothetical problem.
- Discuss the potential application of problem-solving techniques within their own discipline or profession.
- Understand the role of reflection in the problem-solving process and apply reflective thinking skills to analyse and learn from past problem-solving experiences.
There is no prescriptive method of how to use this content in your teaching. How you include it in your delivery will depend on many factors, including your classroom environment and how much prior knowledge your students have of reflective practice.
Things you can do with this content:
- Use the questions in the Reflect boxes to guide discussions on problem solving and decision making.
- Create tailored lessons teaching problem solving strategies and tools by selecting relevant information and activities and combining it on your own platform.
- Use the examples in the chapter as models to scaffold your students’ work by looking at them together in class or asking students to review them outside of class.
- Include a link to this chapter as a support resource for students doing assessment tasks that require them to use problem-solving strategies.
- Enhance your students’ understanding of problem solving within their specific field by using the examples, case studies, and scenarios as supplementary material.
- Use the industry-focused examples and scenarios to inform and motivate students who might not fully appreciate that being aware of problem-solving strategies and tools will help them in their careers.
For more ideas, check out the general suggestions in the Educator’s guide in the Front Matter.
Integration, accessibility, and inclusion
Please read the sections on integration and accessibility in the Educator’s guide. This is where you will find information on the practicalities and best practices of taking, adapting, and using this open educational content, such as importing it into your LMS, downloading .h5p files, attributing and adding the correct licensing information, and ensuring the content is accessible and inclusive.
Resources
The content in this chapter was developed through the adaptation of selected Open Educational Resources (OERs) and the creation of original content.
In cases where content is not an OER or licensing is unclear, the original source has been linked and/or clearly sourced. This is the case for the embedded YouTube videos.
Pages that do not list OER attributions contain only original content unless otherwise referenced.
This resource list also includes academic sources which helped inform the adapted OERs or original content.
7.3 Problem-solving by OpenStax College licensed under CC BY 4.0 (OER)
Tools & Templates: Five Whys by the Strategy Unit licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (OER)
Assignment Types: Mind Maps by Kent State University licensed under CC BY 4.0 (OER)
The Roughwriter’s Guide by Karen Palmer licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (OER)
Mind Mapping page, RMIT Learning Lab (Linked external resource)
Mind mapping an artist statement, RMIT Learning Lab (Linked external resource)
