21CLD Real-world problem solving

REAL-WORLD PROBLEM SOLVING AND INNOVATION SUMMARY

Our world faces complex and challenging problems.

• Climate change
• Pollution
• Habitat and biodiversity loss
• Ocean conservation
• Water scarcity
• Food security
• Disease
• Gender equality
• Poverty

The global challenges are numerous, and our children need to be prepared to solve them. Our youth won’t find solutions to these problems in textbooks or multiple-choice tests.

Instead, society requires problem solvers who are capable of working on a multidisciplinary team to tackle hard problems in creative and innovative ways.  In our global, knowledge-based economy, employers actively seek workers who skillfully generate and test creative ideas. According to employers, the most important skills in new recruits include:

• Teamwork
• Problem solving
• Innovative thinking

This challenge requires learners to innovate by implementing their solutions, designs, or ideas to audiences outside the classroom.  To create these learning activities, educators may ask learners to engage with a challenge that exists in their community.   In working to find a solution, learners create, adapt, evaluate, and apply ideas.  Most importantly, they complete this work for a specific, plausible audience.

Innovation requires putting learners’ ideas or solutions into practice in the real world or communicating their ideas to someone outside the classroom who may implement them.  The real-world problem solving and innovation dimension consists of several questions:

• Is problem solving the main requirement?
• Are learners working on a real-world problem?
• Does the activity require innovation?
• Problem solving happens when learners must:
• Develop a solution to a problem that’s new to them,
• Complete a task that they haven’t received instructions on how to do, or
• Design a complex product that meets a set of requirements

Learning activities that require problem solving don’t:

• Give learners all the information they need to complete the task, or
• Specify the whole procedure they must follow to arrive at a solution

When learners work on problem-solving tasks, they engage in some or all of the following activities:

• Investigate the parameters of the problem to guide their approach,
• Generate ideas and alternatives,
• Devise their own approaches,
• Explore several possible procedures that might be appropriate to the situation, or
• Design a coherent solution, test the solution, and iterate improvements to the solution.

Is problem solving the main requirement?

In the following scenarios, the main requirement isn’t problem solving:

• Learners reading a story and then taking a quiz about what they read
• Learners learning about pedestrian safety by studying a map showing bus stops and pedestrian crossings
• Learners using Microsoft Excel to calculate the mean, median, and mode of several sample data sets

In the following scenarios, the main requirement is problem solving:

• Learners being required to rewrite a story from the perspective of a character other than the narrator
• Learners using a map of a bus route to propose where to add pedestrian crossings in a fictional town
• Learners identifying appropriate situations for using mean, median, and mode by exploring several sample data sets in Microsoft Excel

Are learners working on a real-world problem?

Real-world problems are authentic situations and needs that exist outside an academic context. These real-world problems have several common characteristics.

• Real people experience them.
• They have solutions for a specific, plausible audience other than the educator as grader.
• They have specific, explicit contexts.
• If learners use data to solve the problem, they use actual data not data developed by an educator or publisher for a lesson.

The following scenarios aren’t real-world problems:

• Learners rewriting a Shakespeare play in a new rhyme scheme
• Learners using a bus map in a textbook to propose where to add pedestrian crossings in a fictional town
• Learners investigating the interaction between green plants and carbon dioxide in the air
• Learners identifying appropriate situations for using mean, median, and mode by exploring several sample data sets in Microsoft Excel

The following scenarios are real-world problems:

• Learners rewriting a Shakespeare play for a teenage audience
• Learners using their town’s bus routes to propose where to add pedestrian crossings in their town
• Learners investigating whether growing plants in their classroom improves the air quality
• Learners analyzing data about the basketball team and using Microsoft Excel to graph performance patterns for the overall team and individual player

Does the activity require innovation?

Innovation requires putting learners’ ideas or solutions into practice in the real world.  If learners don’t have the authority to implement their own ideas, it counts as innovation only if they convey their ideas to people who may implement the idea.

Innovation also benefits people other than the learners. In other words, it has value beyond meeting the requirements of a learning exercise.  Innovative activities are not educator-controlled.  They have real audiences who are interested in and may benefit from the learners’ work.

The following scenarios do not require innovation:

• Learners rewriting the Shakespeare play for a teenage audience but not performing it
• Learners writing letters addressed to the town council about improving pedestrian safety, but only giving the letters to their educator to grade
• Learners investigating two or more websites or games, developing a presentation using Microsoft Video Editor on internet safety guidelines for parents and learners, but not handing it in for a grade
• Learners analyzing data about the basketball team and using Microsoft Excel to graph performance patterns for the overall team and individual players

The following scenarios require innovation:

• Learners rewriting the Shakespeare play for a teenage audience and performing it at a local youth center
• Learners writing letters to the town council about their ideas for adding pedestrian crossings in their town and mailing the letters to council members
• Learners investigating two or more websites or games, developing a presentation using Microsoft Video Editor on internet safety guidelines for parents and learners, and presenting their products at parent’s night
• Learners analyzing statistics on the basketball team’s past performance and creating mathematical models using Microsoft Excel for the coach to illustrate targeted improvements for both team and individual performance

Support real-world problem solving and innovation with Microsoft tools

When learners work on problem-solving tasks, they:

• Investigate the problem
• Brainstorm solutions and alternatives to the problem
• Devise their own approaches
• Design a coherent solution, test the solution, and iterate improvements to the solution

In the problem-solving process, learners may use:

• OneNote Class Notebook to brainstorm and collect research and data
• Minecraft: Education Edition to conduct simulations
• Microsoft Forms to collect data
• Microsoft Excel to analyze data
• Microsoft Teamscalls to connect with experts

When their problem solving also requires innovation, many Microsoft tools help learners publish their ideas in the real world.

• Microsoft Video Editor helps learners create documentaries, commercials, music videos, or other video products that inform or persuade their chosen audience
• Microsoft Voice Recorder helps learners create podcasts
• Microsoft PowerPoint allows learners to give dynamic live presentations. With PowerPoint, learners may use a headset and have real-time, automatic captions or subtitles on screen. Additionally, with Live Presentations in PowerPoint, audience members may:

• See a presentation on their devices
• Read live subtitles in their preferred language
• Give feedback during the presentation
• Evaluate the presentation
  • Microsoft Sway allows learners to create attractive multimedia presentations for the web. With a dynamic, interactive canvas, learners may build a presentation with text, images, videos, and embedded Office files to share additional information or a Microsoft Form to collect data
  • Microsoft Word helps learners create flyers, pamphlets, or deliverables for their selected audience
  • Flipgrid helps learners create tutorials with the screencast feature
  • Minecraft: Education Edition allows learners to create prototypes of their designs
  • Microsoft MakeCode Arcade allows learners to create video games that teach a lesson, review concepts, or simply entertain