Problem Finding

1
Problem Finding

• Lynda Stone
• Kris D. Gutierrez
• University of California, Los Angeles
• Graduate School of Education and Information
  Studies

2
Research Questions

• 1. How is problem-finding in ensembles
  collaboratively accomplished?
• 2. How are the social interactional processes of
  finding problems related to the larger culture of
  the 5th Dimension (Las Redes) learning community?

3
Fieldnotes and video data collected by two
veteran Ugs

• Joseys, a new Ug, second visits to Las Redes
• Assisting a 2nd grader, Abel describing only one
  moment in developmental process
• Cultural goals and values influence the
  interactional processes in which assistance is
  embedded
• Problem-finding is not separate from strategies
  utilized by tutors

4

• Josey is helping Abel figure out how to create 21
  with the values of 9 and 3 in the Puzzle tank.
  What is important here is Josseys reliance
  solely on directive assistance strategies. In
  doing so, Josey organizes the formally presented
  problem as a series of sequential steps.

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Fieldnote1
Describing a Novice Undergraduate in an Ensemble
Jossey was very Directive. For example in one
game the global capacity was 21 and the two other
tanks were 9 and 3. Instead of just letting Abel
go ahead with the game, Jossey took Abel through
the process of completing the game step by step.
First se said, Whats 9 plus 9? Abel replies,
18 and Jossey responds with, good! Then she
says, Whats 18 plus 3? and after a few moments
of hard thinking Abel relies, 21.After this was
verbally done, Abel goes ahead successfully
empties out the tanks into the truck. For most of
the session, Jossey used this type of technique.
She would verbally take Anthony through the
addition steps and lead him to the correct
answer.
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Fieldnote1 Continued
Describing a Novice Undergraduate in an Ensemble
Her method for getting him to the correct answer
was to put the correct numbers in the equation
and have him do the addition. She very rarely let
him explore with the numbers and very rarely let
him come up with different possible equations
that could solve the problem. She pretty much
gave him all the correct requirements and had him
do the addition. (Mike and Rick 1/27/97)
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Serial Presented Problem

Presented Problem
Completion of Presented Problem
Subtask1 Adult Determined
Subtask2 Adult Determined
Subtask n Adult Determined
.
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Fieldnote 2
Mike and Ricks Analysis of the Problem
Though Abel got the problem correct, it does not
mean that he understood the game. From this
interaction, it is evident that Abel can do
simple addition, but we are unable to see if he
knows how to figure out how to make 21 from 9 and
3. In being so directive, Jossey did not allow
for the game to serve its purpose. If the game
was about simple addition, there would have been
just a simple addition problem on the screen.
Abel was never given the chance to experiment
with the game, and could not demonstrate to us
whether he understood the concept of the game.
(Mike and Rick, 1/28/97)
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Excerpt 1
A Veteran Participant Explaining the Goal
Mike Do you know what the object of the game
is? 1 Marvin No.

2 Mike You see, you have

3 The object of the game is to fill this truck
right here 4 (Pointing to the screen)

5 You have
6 Marvin (..) 7
(Watching Mike point to the screen.)
8 Giselle (Watching Mike point to the
screen.) 9
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Excerpt 1(Continued)
A Veteran Participant Explaining the Goal
Mike You see youre gonna use these two
tanks 10 Andthis ones
four, 11
Onetwogtthree, fourlt 12
(Pointing to the screen as he counts)
13 (0.4)
14 And this one has
two 15 And
the goal is to fill up the truck is twelve.
16 So they they tell you
the goal right there okay 17
They use these ounces to fill up the truck.
18 (0.9) 19
And then you could like use the arrows
to move 20 the uha 21
gtYou knowlt you might wanna try clicking on
the 22 arrow and see what they
do. 23
11
Excerpt 2
Shifting participation--Doing the Explaining
Melvin You have to get fifteen . So what do
you wanna put down first? You wanta
put down six or do you wanta put down three
(1.4) Put down six? (0.8)
Okaynow how many more do you need to get
fifteen? How many more do you need? Use your
fingers to do it. You call it three, four,
five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.
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Excerpt 2Continued
Shifting participation--Doing the Explaining
So you need twelve. Now put your hand here
and take this one. (Helping his sister use her
fingers.) Put this one up to the 20 and then
fill it up like that. Rick Good Job.
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Excerpt 3
Shifting participation--Explanation of Reasoning
Marvin All right. (Can you see) which gets
closer to twenty-five? First you see which
gets closer to twenty-five. And then you I
choose the 9 because it was closer to 18 and
that was the closest you could get. Thats the
one you could do. So 18. You count with your
fingers count with your fingers to get 25.
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Fieldnote 3
Veteran Undergraduate Assessment and Assistance
Strategy
Marvin was very directive when teaching Giselle
about the game, and we did not know if she truly
grasped the concept of the game. She knew what
the object of the game was in that she knew the
goal and that you had to use the quantities in
the tanks, but she did not show that she knew how
to use the quantities to achieve the goal. When
she played with Marvin, she merely followed his
instructions. When she had to make any decisions
she was very hesitant and seemed to have some
trouble with her addition. Consequently, I
thought that it would be useful if I could make
more visual to her by drawing a diagram on a
piece of paper. (Mike and Rick 1/25/97)
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Fieldnote 4
Assisting Giselle
When the game appeared on the screen, I asked
Giselle what the goal of the game was and what
quantities she had to use to achieve it. She had
no problem identifying these things. (OCI
assumed she learned this from playing with
Marvin.) Before we proceeded with the game, I
asked her if she wanted to draw the diagram I had
briefly used to help Marvin on the previous game,
and she said yes. (OC The diagram was drawn on a
blank piece of line paper. It was a very simple
drawing of a bar graph. Each line indicated one
quantity measurement.) To give an example of how
we went about solving these games, I will
describe how we solved our first game together.
The first game gave us the goal of 21 and the
two quantities of 7 and 2.
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Fieldnote 4Continued 2
Assisting Giselle
Consequently, I drew a bar graph consisting of 21
lines and numbered it from 1 to 21. After I did
this, I showed Giselle (on the diagram) the goal
of 21, and I wrote down the quantities of 7 and
2, which she told me was the quantities we were
to use after I asked her a question about which
quantities we were supposed to use to achieve the
goal,next to the bar graph. Upon completing this,
I turned it over to Giselle. I asked her what she
wanted to start with to make 21. She said, 7,
then we filled the graph up til the 7 box. I then
asked her how many more boxes were left in order
to fill up the bar graph. She kind of hesitated,
so I showed her that she could count the empty
boxes on the bar graph to figure this out and
this is exactly what she did and replied, 14.
17
Fieldnote 4Continued 3
Assisting Giselle
She then said she wanted to put in another seven
and filled the bar graph up to fourteen after
counting off another 7 boxes. We then went
through the process of counting the empty boxes.
She count off seven more empty boxes and replied
that we had to put another 7 in the graph to fill
it up to 21. After she filled up the graph,
Giselle went back to the computer and followed
the procedures she did on paper. She successfully
did this and looked at me with a nice smile.
(OC it was a pretty cool moment.)In any
matter, this is how we went about completing the
first three games. (Mike 2/25/97)
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Bar Graph

21











Mike What number do you want to start with to
make 21?
21, 7, 2
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Fieldnote 5
The Fourth and Final game
The fourth and final game was a bit different.
This game Giselle chose not to use the graph
before trying it on the computer. She read the
instructions and proceeded on with the game. The
goal of this game was to achieve 27 by using the
quantities 9 and 6. I do not recall exactly what
order she placed the quantities into the truck,
but I know that she worked extremely
quickly. (OC Her quick decisions led me to
believe that she was not planning out her moves.
It seemed like she was randomly filling the
truck.) I did not intervene in any way, and she
lost the game in a matter of seconds. After the
truck overflowed I said something like, Oh, the
truck overflowed. You put in too much liquid. I
guess it is important to plan out your moves
because you might overflow.
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Fieldnote 5 Continued
The Fourth and Final game
After hearing this, Giselle agreed that it is
important to plan out her moves. Consequently,
she told me that she wanted to use the diagram
when I asked her if she wanted to try the same
game over again. She said something like, This
time I will use the this 9 pointing at the piece
of paper we were using to draw the bar graphs).
We then went through the same processes as we did
in the prior games, and Giselle successfully
completed yet another game. (OC I was really
impressed that she wanted to use the diagram
after her failed attempt. She learned--at least
I hope she learned--how to use a strategy to
assist her with the game.) Mike 2/27/97
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Mediated Serial
Subtask Co-defined
Explicit Information Adaptable Strategy
Completion of Presented Problem
Task n Child Defined
Presented Problem
Dynamic Assessment