A Study of Students' Conception of Problem Situations: Using Conceptualization in Scenario-Based Learning

Students' appropriate conception of a problem situation can support improved problem solving in both self-regulated learning and STEM disciplines and can support the self-understanding which is the principal competency for self-regulated learning. The current study focused on students' conceptualization of ten problem situations, half being Sequential (SEQ) and half being Non-Sequential (NonSEQ). Student participants conceptualized the problem situations using their own diagrammatic techniques. It was hypothesized that self-regulated learners can successfully conceptualize either problem situation. The results revealed that, while there was no significant difference between conceptualizations whether participants started with SEQ or NonSEQ situations, subsequent conceptualizations were significantly poorer for SEQ versus NonSEQ situations.