Understanding Learners’ Challenges and Scaffolding their Ill-structured Problem Solving in a Technology-Supported Self-Regulated Learning Environment

The purpose of this chapter is to understand learners’ challenges in ill-structured problem solving and identify effective strategies and tools to scaffold their problem-solving processes. The following goals serve to organize the chapter: (1) presenting an updated expert model of ill-structured problem solving based on a critical synthesis of ill-structured problem-solving literature, (2) identifying learner challenges in the ill-structured problem-solving processes by comparing their performance with the expert model, (3) proposing a scaffolding framework with strategies and tools to address various learner challenges. The scaffolding strategies and tools will be discussed in two parts: designing a learning environment with hard scaffolding strategies and tools to address key challenges encountered by learners and facilitating learners’ problem-solving processes through soft scaffolding provided by the teacher/expert and peers. It is hoped that this chapter will shed light on instructional design and classroom practice in supporting learners’ endeavor to solve ill-structured problems.