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![[Hand Holding a Mouse]](/am/images/publications/LL/26/3/06l/feature.jpg)
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The
Problem Cycle
A
Model for Computer Education
By Margaret Lloyd
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In this issue’s feature
article, Margaret
Lloyd uses the metaphor of a bicycle to advocate the
teaching
of problem solving and computer-mediated solutions
rather than
simply providing students with key-press worksheets that
teach
specific applications.
 Download
the full article (PDF, 473 KB, PDF
Instructions)
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 How
the Cycle Begins
The teaching methodology described by the
problem cycle model begins
with software, which is introduced through demonstration,
tutorials,
and examples. In this way, students acquire both the
concrete tools
for application and the technological and intellectual
context for
their learning. According to Jane Kenway (1995),
“technology
is a context within which learning occurs and about which
learning
must occur” (p. 25).
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 Students
then perform simple tasks to gain knowledge
(structures, formats,
and operations) and confidence by successfully using
the software.
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 The
problem—a separate entity from the software
that requires
the application of such higher-order skills as
analysis, synthesis,
evaluation, and communication—is then set.
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 To
solve problems, students need external and internal
support.
External support comes from teachers and peers, and
internal
support comes through communication, research,
preexisting
knowledge, and motivation.
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 Proficiency
is measured by how well a student links existing or
engendered
internal skills to the knowledge and confidence
gained by
using the software.
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 The
process so far not only suggests a methodology for
teaching
computing, but also outlines criteria for assessing
content
knowledge, practical proficiency from applying the
knowledge,
and affective outcomes or confidence. As marked by
the triangle,
these became my operational or alpha objectives in
assessing
student’s work. They reflect De Bono’s
(1976) notion
that thinking (or problem solving in this case) is
the operating
skill by which intelligence acts on experience.
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 The
set problem presupposes a solution—and,
ideally, more
than one probable or acceptable solution. In an
academic environment,
a solution is a discrete entity with its own clearly
defined
set of criteria. Effective solutions mirror or
parallel the
set problem.
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 To
bridge the cognitive space between problem and
solution, the
learner needs to take ownership, redefine the
problem in personal
terms, use the software creatively (an extension of
knowledge
and confidence), interpret and communicate ideas and
alternatives,
extrapolate a solution from beyond the given
context, perceive
patterns, and analyze or synthesize. The
“bridging”—the
application of the resources (contained by the
triangle and
greater than its parts) to the solution (marked by
the linking
bar)—becomes the measure of more critical beta
objectives.
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 The
Cycle’s Completion
Indeed, all we need now are handlebars, brakes,
reflectors, a
seat, and probably a bell—and we really do have a
“problem-solving
cycle."
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Implications
for Education
Devising problems to be solved by computer mediation,
rather than calling on specific macros from specific
software, changes the nature of the task offered to
students. Problems should be defined in terms of operational
or critical learning goals rather than rely on mechanistic
duplication with the computer used in a context of action.
Assessment is a process, not an answer.
A critical understanding is that “in times of
change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find
themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world which
no longer exists” (Hoffer, as cited in Ray, 1991, p.
10). When I began to teach computing in 1988, I developed
“key-press” worksheets for software applications
that have since disappeared. I wasted my students’
time, making them master now-defunct software. I sometimes
wonder what my DOS 2.0 gurus (still only 20-somethings) are
doing now. Are they reciting commands to their own young
children? Do they still revere their dual-floppy-drive XT
machines?
Software and hardware development would not stop for my
beautifully detailed worksheets. I could not accommodate
(i.e., change the world), so I had to assimilate (i.e.,
change my thinking to fit the world). This Piagetian change
led to the strategies outlined here. I stopped teaching
computing and started offering computer-mediated problems
with a progression from operational skills to higher-order
thinking skills (as reflected by the stages of the problem
cycle model). The mandatory lower levels of a spreadsheet
problem, for example, involved simple template design and
data entry. Higher levels involved “what if” or
hypothetical questions that asked for an extrapolation of
findings from outside that were optional and depended on
interest, motivation, proficiency, and skill. Students were
encouraged and supported in their attempts to reach higher
levels.
Adopting unchanging tenets of problem solving allows
educators to weather changes in technology. Applying
higher-order thinking strategies in using a database has
little to do with the hardware platform or network
configuration being used. Moving forward to new basics
rather than moving back to old ones means that students are
better equipped. New basics, articularly information
literacy, acknowledge the changes wrought by technology but
do not seek to constrain them or reduce them to a fixed and
formulaic curriculum.
The following 10 tested strategies are applied in the
problem-cycle methodology.
- Do not teach computing. Instead, facilitate
problem solving; this requires computer-mediated
solutions.
- Adopt unchanging tenets such as (a) the problem
precedes the solution and (b) the process is more
important than the solution.
- Accept that a solution is not necessarily an
answer: It may be the algorithm or process leading
to an answer. The problem-solution relationship is
better as a one-to-many rather than a convergent
one-to-one or single answer.
- Encourage trial and error, discovery learning,
peer tutoring, and meta-cognition so that students
troubleshoot rather than just press keys.
- Model the acceptance of problems and proactive
response as part of the process rather than as
indications of failure. Doing otherwise means
staying in a safety zone (and never finding the
limits to what can be achieved) or being paralyzed
into inaction because of a fear of failure.
- Move forward to new basics rather than back to
old ones.
- As far as practical, do not devise
product-specific tasks that make product
proficiency preeminent (“product” here
means any proprietary software package).
- Encourage the development of personal
benchmarks.
- Provide students with conceptual structures of
computing through linking the unknown to the known.
- Adopt these self-same strategies to guide your
own learning.
Summary
The problem-solving cycle worked for me because it put
me
in touch with what I was really doing. I was teaching, not
impersonating a software manual or online tutorial. I had
moved from what was effectively a transmission model of
teaching that focused on the correct performance of a task
to a more constructivist and sociocultural model. This
changed more than what and how I taught: It changed who I
was. In the new model, I set challenges and guided the
conversation rather than controlled the process from the
outside. Students ceased to be recipients; they became
participants in the process. Teacher and learner both became
cyclists.
King Canute (ca. 1028) tried to halt the incoming tide
by
raising his hand. The waves you face today are those of
changing technology, school restructuring, and shifting
sociological demands. The massive forces arrayed against
your classroom cannot be stopped or tempered. So you must
devise logical pragmatic strategies to conquer them. Mine
just happens to look like a bicycle. If only Canute had
owned one.
Margaret Lloyd, mm.lloyd@qut.edu.au
References
Alasuutari, P. (1995). Researching culture:
Qualitative method and cultural studies. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage
De Bono, E. (1976). The CoRT thinking program.
New
York: Pergamon Press.
Kenway, J. (1995). Technological trends: Issues for
schooling. In R. Lingard & F. Rizvi (Eds.), External
environmental scan (pp. 3–7). Brisbane,
Queensland, Australia: Department of Education (Queensland).
Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, computers
and
powerful ideas. New York: Basic Books.
Ray, D. (1991). Technology and re-structuring—Part
II: New organizational directions. The Computing
Teacher, 18(7), 8–12.
Sidebar:
A Problem Cycle Unit
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