Facilitating Flexible Problem Solving: A Cognitive Load Perspective

By Slava Kalyuga, Alexander Renkl, Fred Paas. 2010

94 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The development of flexible, transferable problem-solving skills is an important aim of contemporary educational systems. Since processing limitations of our mind represent a major factor influencing any meaningful learning, the acquisition of flexible problem-solving skills needs to be based on known characteristics of our cognitive architecture in order to be effective and efficient. This paper takes a closer look at the processes involved in the acquisition of flexible problem-solving skills within a cognitive load framework. It concludes that (1) cognitive load theory can benefit from putting more emphasis on generalized knowledge structures; (2) there are tradeoffs between generality and power with respect to specific versus generalized knowledge structures; (3) generalized knowledge structures of “medium” generality are essential for flexible expertise; and (4) cognitive load theory could provide a valuable framework for considering essential attributes of flexible expertise.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6efd7eb4de22d587a4a6e7df4d334325e9517b1e

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In Artificial Intelligence

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

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Citations in the corpus

Domain-general problem solving skills and education in the 21st century (2014, background): “Domain-general skills may also contribute to successful solutions when people encounter new problem situations requiring nonroutine actions in which they cannot rely on known domain-specific strategies (Kalyuga et al., 2010; Ones & Viswesvaran, 1996).”
Educating the Developing Mind: Towards an Overarching Paradigm (2011, background): “Interestingly, several scholars proposed variants of these schemes as a means for guiding learning and problem solving in fields as different as engineering (Kalyuga et al. 2010) and biology (Hmelo-Silver and Pfeffer 2004).”
Accounting for Beneficial Effects of Worked Examples in Tutored Problem Solving (2010, background): “As such, future research should investigate whether this adaptivity can increase the acquisition of flexible problem-solving skills (Kalyuga et al. 2010), which in turn is expected to lead to better preparation for future learning (Bransford and Schwartz 1999; Chi and VanLehn 2007).”