Problem set methodology

The main purpose of the method is for students to develop skills in solving complex problems.

The instructor assigns a problem (or multiple problems) to the students. Students devise a process to solve it and produce their own solutions. The instructor manually grades each one; the assessment is based on their strategy, not only on the final answer. In other words, students get some credit for getting parts of the solution right, even if they make mistakes in other parts. Consequently, they can get a high grade if they get most of the strategy right but still get a wrong answer.

Characteristics

• Excellent for real-world problems with no easy answers.
• Memorizing information doesn’t help.
• Problem sets are mainly used in math, science and engineering. In slightly altered form, they have been used for economics and community development.
• Some instructors report that the approach doesn’t work well for students who are less capable or lack confidence. Those students need to follow a model or a method.

Variations

• Cheating doesn’t usually help; students can’t look up an answer.
• Some institutions only use problem sets as a learning activity, while others give credit that affects the final grade for the whole unit.
• Some institutions disallow collaboration. Others actively encourage it, setting problems that are too big for any one student to provide a total solution. Students need to work together and most learning is done in small groups.