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Evaluation/Modification Cycles in Junior High Students' Technological Problem Solving

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Abstract

Technological problem-solving knowledge and skills have become primary components of almost any curricular endeavor in technology education for the last decades. However, our understanding of the way students approach such tasks and generate solutions is still incomplete. The main goal of this study was to trace closely Grade 7 students' work while engaged in design tasks within an unstructured learning environment. We report on a specific fragment of the process, namely on the evaluation/modification cycles which the students went through after completing the construction of the first version of a solution. The study focused on: (a) identifying the conceptual constituents of these cycles; (b) the students' decisions with reference to the original design goals in the course of these cycles; and (c) the formulation of a general reflection/decision/action model characterizing these cycles.

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Mioduser, D. Evaluation/Modification Cycles in Junior High Students' Technological Problem Solving. International Journal of Technology and Design Education 12, 123–138 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015256928387

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