Using Invention to Change How Students Tackle Problems

Abstract

Invention activities challenge students to tackle problems that superficially appear unrelated to the course material but illustrate underlying fundamental concepts that are fundamental to material that will be presented. During our invention activities in a first-year biology class, students were presented with problems that are parallel to those that living cells must solve, in weekly sessions over a 13-wk term. We compared students who participated in the invention activities sessions with students who participated in sessions of structured problem solving and with students who did not participate in either activity. When faced with developing a solution to a challenging and unfamiliar biology problem, invention activity students were much quicker to engage with the problem and routinely provided multiple reasonable hypotheses. In contrast the other students were significantly slower in beginning to work on the problem and routinely produced relatively few ideas. We suggest that the invention activities develop a highly valuable skill that operates at the initial stages of problem solving.

Practicing versus inventing with contrasting cases: The effects of telling first on learning and transfer.

“…However, the current implementation did not have the time to emphasize the development of strategic knowledge and scientific dispositions (Gresalfi & Cobb, 2006). Taylor, Smith, van Stolk, and Spiegelman (2010) found that students who received a full course of inventing activities in college-level cell biology were more able to generate explanations for novel cell phenomena compared to T&P students.…”

A Cultured Learning Environment: Implementing a Problem- and Service-Based Microbiology Capstone Course to Assess Process- and Skill-Based Learning Objectives

“…We did not have sustained direct assessment of learning objectives. Like many other educators, we agreed that these objectives (see Appendix: Table 1, second column) centered on the ability to solve novel problems within our discipline (Taylor, Smith, van Stolk, & Spiegelman, 2010). Unfortunately, our students rarely encountered the opportunity to solve novel problems in their coursework.…”

“…Unfortunately, our students rarely encountered the opportunity to solve novel problems in their coursework. Others have noted this problem as well (Jonassen, 2000;Taylor et al, 2010).…”

Wait for it . . . Delaying Instruction Improves Mathematics Problem Solving: A Classroom Study

“…A growing body of evidence has documented the benefits of delaying instruction until after an opportunity for exploratory problem solving Kapur, 2010Kapur, , 2011Kapur, , 2012Kapur & Bielaczyc, 2012;Needham & Begg, 1991;Schwartz & Bransford, 1998;Schwartz et al, 2011;Schwartz & Martin, 2004;Taylor et al, 2010). However, the majority of past research comparing an exploreinstruct approach to a conventional instruct-solve approach has used complex problem-solving tasks with adolescents or adults and instruction that included information on solution procedures (Kapur, 2010(Kapur, , 2011(Kapur, , 2012Schwartz et al, 2011;Schwartz et al, 2009;Schwartz & Martin, 2004).…”

“…A growing body of evidence supports the potential of an explore-instruct approach for a wide range of topics, including elementary mathematics (DeCaro & Rittleohnson, 2012), middle-school science (Schwartz et al, 2011), high-school statistics (Kapur, 2012), analogical reasoning (Needham & Begg, 1991), cell functioning (Taylor, Smith, van Stolk, & Spiegelman, 2010) and psychology (Schwartz & Bransford, 1998). Experimental studies on the timing of instruction relative to solving unfamiliar problems provide the most direct evidence for the effectiveness of an exploreinstruct approach.…”