Ill-structured problems in capstone courses – investigating students’ approaches and experience

This qualitative study investigates how students work with ill-structured problems in a capstone course, how they experience the problem-solving process, and how they use different types of scaffolding in this process. The analysis of interviews with student teams shows that their problem-solving process diverges from the recommendations of most problem-solving techniques. In particular, less time is spent on problem definition, and iterations between different parts of the problem-solving process are limited. The student teams seek scaffolding when they do not know what to do. While many teams start by consulting course materials (hard scaffolding), teams that experience uncertainty or stress in these situations often seek mentor support (soft scaffolding). These insights into the interlinkage between students’ experience and their use of scaffolding when working with ill-structured problems can inform course design as well as mentoring practice.

本质性研究旨在探究学生在顶石课程（capstone course）中如何应对不良结构问题（ill-structured problems）、如何体验问题解决流程，以及在此过程中如何使用不同类型的教学支架（scaffolding）。通过对学生团队访谈资料的分析发现，其问题解决流程与多数问题解决方法的建议存在偏差。具体而言，学生团队在问题界定环节投入的时间更少，且问题解决流程各环节间的迭代十分有限。当学生团队不知该如何推进时，便会寻求教学支架的支持。尽管多数团队最初会查阅课程资料（硬支架(hard scaffolding)），但那些在此过程中遭遇不确定或压力的团队，往往会寻求导师的支持（软支架(soft scaffolding)）。这些关于学生在应对不良结构问题时的体验与教学支架使用之间关联的研究发现，可为课程设计及导师辅导实践提供参考依据。