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Problem solving in the time of coronavirus pandemic.

ABSTRACT: Problem solving, multiple-choice question-based educational tools have been used for decades in molecular cell biology courses at the University of Pécs Medical School, Pécs, Hungary. A set of these tests was published in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education between 2002 and 2015. Such tests using an experimental approach help students to understand how living cells function. Besides being tools of education, they can be used for examination purposes as well to assess higher levels of intellectual skills (interpretation and problem solving) acquired by the students. The test presented in this paper is based on parts of an original publication in which the authors described seminal observations on the function of a viral protein in the infection process of SARS-CoV-2. The test is aimed at helping the students to understand the methods used in the experiments, to analyze the data and to draw conclusions from them regarding certain aspects of the mechanism of coronavirus infection.

SUBMITTER: Bator J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8652933 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Problem solving in the time of coronavirus pandemic.

Bátor Judit J Szeberényi József J

Biochemistry and molecular biology education : a bimonthly publication of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 20210902 6

Problem solving, multiple-choice question-based educational tools have been used for decades in molecular cell biology courses at the University of Pécs Medical School, Pécs, Hungary. A set of these tests was published in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education between 2002 and 2015. Such tests using an experimental approach help students to understand how living cells function. Besides being tools of education, they can be used for examination purposes as well to assess higher levels of in ...[more]

PMID: 34472686

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Project description:This study is based on one collaborative problem solving task from an international assessment: the Xandar task. It was developed and delivered by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Program for International Student Assessment (OECD PISA) 2015. We have investigated the relationship of problem solving performance with invested time and number of actions in collaborative episodes for the four parts of the Xandar task. The parts require the respondent to collaboratively plan a process for problem solving, implement the process, reach a solution, and evaluate the solution (For a full description, see the Materials and Methods section, "Parts of the Xandar Task.") Examples of an action include posting to a chat log, accessing a shared resource, or conducting a search on a map tool. Actions taken in each part of the task were identified by PISA and recorded in the data set numerically. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model looks at two types of relationship: at the level of latent variables (the factors) and at extra dependencies, which here are direct effects and correlated residuals (independent of the factors). The model, which is well-fitting, has three latent variables: actions (A), times (T), and level of performance (P). Evidence for the uni-dimensionality of performance level is also found in a separate analysis of the binary items. On the whole for the entire task, participants with more activities are less successful and faster, based on the United States data set employed in the analysis. By contrast, successful participants take more time. By task part, the model also investigates relationships between activities, time, and performance level within the parts. This was done because one can expect dependencies within parts of such a complex task. Results indicate some general and some specific relationships within the parts, see the full manuscript for more detail. We conclude with a discussion of what the investigated relationships may reveal. We also describe why such investigations may be important to consider when preparing students for improved skills in collaborative problem solving, considered a key aspect of successful 21st century skills in the workplace and in everyday life in many countries.

Project description:In this paper we argue that a synthesis of findings across the various sub-areas of research in complex problem solving and consequently progress in theory building is hampered by an insufficient differentiation of complexity and difficulty. In the proposed framework of person, task, and situation (PTS), complexity is conceptualized as a quality that is determined by the cognitive demands that the characteristics of the task and the situation impose. Difficulty represents the quantifiable level of a person's success in dealing with such demands. We use the well-documented "semantic effect" as an exemplar for testing some of the conceptual assumptions derived from the PTS framework. We demonstrate how a differentiation between complexity and difficulty can help take beyond a potentially too narrowly defined psychometric perspective and subsequently gain a better understanding of the cognitive mechanisms behind this effect. In an empirical study a total of 240 university students were randomly allocated to one of four conditions. The four conditions resulted from contrasting the semanticity level of the variable labels used in the CPS system (high vs. low) and two instruction conditions for how to explore the CPS system's causal structure (starting with the assumption that all relationships between variables existed vs. starting with the assumption that none of the relationships existed). The variation in the instruction aimed at inducing knowledge acquisition processes of either (1) systematic elimination of presumptions, or (2) systematic compilation of a mental representation of the causal structure underpinning the system. Results indicate that (a) it is more complex to adopt a "blank slate" perspective under high semanticity as it requires processes of inhibiting prior assumptions, and (b) it seems more difficult to employ a systematic heuristic when testing against presumptions. In combination, situational characteristics, such as the semanticity of variable labels, have the potential to trigger qualitatively different tasks. Failing to differentiate between 'task' and 'situation' as independent sources of complexity and treating complexity and difficulty synonymously threaten the validity of performance scores obtained in CPS research.

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Problem solving in the time of coronavirus pandemic.

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Problem solving in the time of coronavirus pandemic.

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