Supporting Agency over Framing Authentic Design Problems

While project-based learning purportedly values student agency, supporting and managing agency remains challenging. We conducted a design-based research study to explore ways problem authenticity and task and participant structures can contribute to students' framing agency, in which students make decisions that are consequential to their learning through ill-structured problem framing. We compared three semesters of an undergraduate engineering design project (cohort 1 n=70; cohort 2 n=70; cohort 3 n=66), using discourse analysis to investigate how task and participant structures supported participation. Students in the first and third cohorts displayed framing agency, while those in the second used their agency to treat the task as well-structured. We discuss implications for designing ill-structured learning in terms of participant and task structure and problem authenticity.