Conceptual Change Instruction: A Method For Facilitating Consciousness In Problem Solving Activities

Problem solving is one of the most difficult higher level cognitive abilities to teach students how to improve on. The ability to detect and respond correctly to the relevant and salient items within a problem space requires students to pay close attention to what is important and unimportant in a given scenario. Often this process requires students to engage in a conceptual change in order to successfully complete a presented problem. This is due to the fact that students have difficulty in adapting to a new approach to a problem once it has been proven to not answer it successfully. Typically, individuals perseverate an incorrect approach many times prior to generating a novel solution methodology. It is presented here that conceptual change instruction is an effective means of improving level of consciousness, which in turn, improves problem solving ability.