Moving towards problems assignments with reduced goal-specificity in introductory STEM courses

Are solving standard end-of-chapter problems found in typical STEM textbooks an effective way of helping students to become better problem solvers? For instance, does it encourage students to choose more expert-like strategies during the solution process? Does it help students gain better conceptual understanding of the content material? Research shows that the answer to the above questions is negative. Studies on expert-novice differences and on cognitive processing suggest that the potential reason is the goal-specificity of traditional problems. Solving problems without a specifically defined goals (reduced goal-specificity problems) leads to higher learning outcomes than solving problems with a specifically well-defined goal, usually specified as a specific goal state that has to be reached (e.g., finding numerical value of a specified variable). We have designed and incorporated a set of reduced goal-specificity physics problems in an algebra-based physics course for engineering technology students at Queensborough Community College. Such problems ask students to find numerical values of as many variables as they can rather requiring determination of numerical values of specific goal variables. The implications of the implementation have been evaluated in a quasi-experimental control-group design study. It is the first time that such problems are created and embedded as an integral part of a college level science course (an ecological setting). We discuss here the implications of the implementation as well present examples of how to turn goal-specific end-of-chapter problems into reduced goal-specificity problems.