Instructional Design and Evaluation of Science Education to Improve Collaborative Problem Solving Skills

Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) skills are essential in education and in the 21st century workforce. CPS involves two main domains: the social domain (e.g., communication or cooperation) and the cognitive domain (e.g., domain-specific problem-solving strategies). As well as scientific knowledge, communication skills, problem-solving creativity, and motivation for learning and inquiry are also required in science education. In this article, a science lesson was designed and integrated with ICT for development of students’ CPS skills. We assessed changes in students’ CPS awareness, and acquisition of related knowledge, before and after the lesson. Results showed CPS awareness on the cognitive domain and acquisition of knowledge were significantly improved. We also examined correlations between students’ CPS awareness, knowledge acquisition, and learning motivation. The results showed significant correlation between students’ awareness of CPS and their acquisition of related knowledge.