Students problem design as a tool for autonomous learning and for stimulating creativity

Abstract

[eng] Science studies use problem exercises to evaluate the understanding of concepts, the capability ofrelating ideas and the ability of reasoning. Traditionally, the professor designs the problem exercisesand/or recommends some bibliography where appropriate exercises can be found. This practiceimplies that many students learn the “standard” type of exercises without achieving full understandingof the underlying concepts. Then, these students have difficulties when the same problem is set outdifferently or new problems are presented. We have implemented an initiative to overcome thissituation.The idea is that the students should design original problem exercises of the subjects they arestudying. The objective is that by doing so, they will organize the concepts hierarchically and establishrelationships between them. This process aims at stimulating their creativity so that when the studentsface new problems, they have mental tools and strategies to face them.In practice, the students are grouped to design the original problem exercises about given topicswhose difficulty is appropriate for the final course exam. After inspection and approval of the professor,the problems are shared with the class and all groups have to solve the problems of their classmates.Finally, each group marks, annotates the mistakes and corrects the solutions of the other groups. Byevaluating the solutions, they learn what is to be expected of an answer when a problem is presented.This methodology has been tested in the Bachelor Degree of Chemistry (Chemistry II and ChemicalPhysics III courses), in the Bachelor Degree of Biochemistry (Chemistry II course) and in the BachelorDegree of Physics (Chemistry I course).