Understanding Scale in Wicked Problems …
59
abstract exercises is the aim of the course or its learning outcome. Their impression—often gained in earlier phases of education—can be that learning at university is connected with abstract, dull exercises only. The transition to problems
during a course, as well as during their studies, can thus be hindered by their
expectations, it may even not be noticed by them. Context-rich real world problems may still be approached like overcomplicated exercises. Students still seek
for the simple formula or basic recipe that will match with some of the words
provided in the problem description; they get lost without understanding why.
The teacher needs to be clear about the transition from exercises to problems.
• From a teacher’s perspective, exercises are a simple and reliable tool. It is easy
to generate them in large numbers; students request them for their exam preparation and textbooks are full of good or old examples. Teachers had their own
learning experience using exercises and they may see this as the usual approach
to teaching. Teachers that never actively worked on real-world problems during
their career may lack experience or feel insecure about creating and working
with complex context laden problems. They may consider that the messiness
and resource demand for the introduction of the extra context for real-world problems overburdens precious teaching time. Teaching with real-world problems also
leads to aspects not all disciplines are used to. Ethical questions arise and political
implications may cross with the belief systems of course attendants, including the
teacher. The preparation of problems is different from the preparation of exercises,
and may need substantially more effort not all universities are prepared to support.
Students may feel unprepared or are unwilling to discuss non-disciplinary issues,
and courses can fail even when the teacher is well prepared and motivated.
If the intended learning outcome of a course or a degree programme is the ability
to approach real-world problems, reach a deper understanding of the system earth, to
understand the messiness and trans-disciplinary interactions or feedbacks between
subsystems, and the scale of real-world problems, then exercise-based teaching is
clearly insufficient and must give way to problems as relevant tools. Dedicated
approaches for teaching ill-structured problems are, for example problem-based
learning (Jonassen et al. 2006) or interdisciplinary projects, where understanding
context and resolving group interaction becomes part of the assignment.
4 Learning to Solve a Complex Problem
In an exercise the rules are laid out, cookbook schemes are available and are usually
memorised (and may therefore serve as a substitute for understanding). Addressing
problems needs a systematic approach that covers all relevant aspects of the problem
in a meaningful way. The existing number of methods for addressing real-world problems is large—many disciplines have developed their own set of specific approaches
or tools. However, there is an underlying generic approach found in most of these (e.g.
Bardwell 1991; Bizer and Führ 2014; ISO 14000, VDI 2221-1), which is summarised
59
abstract exercises is the aim of the course or its learning outcome. Their impression—often gained in earlier phases of education—can be that learning at university is connected with abstract, dull exercises only. The transition to problems
during a course, as well as during their studies, can thus be hindered by their
expectations, it may even not be noticed by them. Context-rich real world problems may still be approached like overcomplicated exercises. Students still seek
for the simple formula or basic recipe that will match with some of the words
provided in the problem description; they get lost without understanding why.
The teacher needs to be clear about the transition from exercises to problems.
• From a teacher’s perspective, exercises are a simple and reliable tool. It is easy
to generate them in large numbers; students request them for their exam preparation and textbooks are full of good or old examples. Teachers had their own
learning experience using exercises and they may see this as the usual approach
to teaching. Teachers that never actively worked on real-world problems during
their career may lack experience or feel insecure about creating and working
with complex context laden problems. They may consider that the messiness
and resource demand for the introduction of the extra context for real-world problems overburdens precious teaching time. Teaching with real-world problems also
leads to aspects not all disciplines are used to. Ethical questions arise and political
implications may cross with the belief systems of course attendants, including the
teacher. The preparation of problems is different from the preparation of exercises,
and may need substantially more effort not all universities are prepared to support.
Students may feel unprepared or are unwilling to discuss non-disciplinary issues,
and courses can fail even when the teacher is well prepared and motivated.
If the intended learning outcome of a course or a degree programme is the ability
to approach real-world problems, reach a deper understanding of the system earth, to
understand the messiness and trans-disciplinary interactions or feedbacks between
subsystems, and the scale of real-world problems, then exercise-based teaching is
clearly insufficient and must give way to problems as relevant tools. Dedicated
approaches for teaching ill-structured problems are, for example problem-based
learning (Jonassen et al. 2006) or interdisciplinary projects, where understanding
context and resolving group interaction becomes part of the assignment.
4 Learning to Solve a Complex Problem
In an exercise the rules are laid out, cookbook schemes are available and are usually
memorised (and may therefore serve as a substitute for understanding). Addressing
problems needs a systematic approach that covers all relevant aspects of the problem
in a meaningful way. The existing number of methods for addressing real-world problems is large—many disciplines have developed their own set of specific approaches
or tools. However, there is an underlying generic approach found in most of these (e.g.
Bardwell 1991; Bizer and Führ 2014; ISO 14000, VDI 2221-1), which is summarised