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Provision of an alternative instructional platform has encouraged students’ involvement in online social collaborative learning that could potentially enhance problem-solving (PS) skill. There are many types of scaffoldings proposed by researchers to inculcate this skill; however, concern arises as a result of an ill-defined problem. Besides being complex than a well-defined problem, its uniqueness originates from the integration of domains in a problem and multiple solutions that can be generated out of it. This study aims to identify the dominant type of scaffold used to guide ill-defined PS, to determine the common platform used and the education level where ill-defined PS is mostly studied. The search and review of relevant articles were done through online databases, journals and Google Scholar search engine using keywords of scaffolding problem solving, ill-structured problem, scaffolding ill-defined problem and support in PS. The findings revealed that metacognitive scaffolding (MS) is dominant in supporting ill-structured PS. MS assists in realigning the thinking of an individual to ensure proactive measures taken in the process of PS. Nevertheless, majority of the previous studies of MS were carried out in higher institutions instead of schools and within formal platform e.g., Learning Management System (LMS). Thus it is hoped that this review will give insights for educators to inculcate MS and improve PS skill in schools and through the use of new platform of social media.

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Problem-solving has been acknowledged as one of the compulsory skills needed to face and overcome challenges of the modern world in either learning or everyday life. However, there is limited information regarding the level of problem-solving skills demonstrated by school students in learning biology subject compared to physics and mathematics. This study aims to identify the problem-solving level of 16-year old high achievers in selected boarding school in the Southern and Central Regions of Malaysia. The problem-solving skills of 70 students were measured using a validated open-ended test, UKPM, which consists of general and topic-specific problem-solving questions for biology. These questions focus on the different steps in the problem-solving processes. High achievers from boarding schools were chosen to ensure the homogenous background of the participants. The data were descriptively analysed and the overall score was used to determine the students' problem-solving level based on the classification in Programme of International Students Assessment (PISA). The result showed that the majority of the participants are low (35%) and intermediate (64%) problem solvers and they showed incompetence in manipulating information and making justifications. They possess high tendency to find the absolute answer, but lack the reflecting ability when answering the test. The criteria and limitations showed that the participants are prone to practise a converged thinking pattern. In this, educators should introduce innovative alternative teaching and learning approach need to enhance the students' problemsolving skills.