Dear list members,
I am nearing the end of a study which incorporated two separate
learning strategies designed to assist novice students interpret
written text into illustrations. The first strategy involved
comprehension and the second was based on analogical reasoning.
Without going into details, one of the conclusions I am formulating
is that designing is far from being an exclusively ill-structured
activity. Within the process model of problem-analysis-synthesis-
execution-production-evaluation, I have found that, at the early
stage of problem definition and analysis students can benefit from a
well-structured approach to certain aspects of the problem. In my
enquiry this related to determining macrostructures (the gist) within
the text (Louwerse and Graesser, 2006). Can anyone tell me who
originated the terms ill-structured and well-structured? Has anyone
else come to the conclusion that designing isn't exclusively an ill-
structured activity?
Mike McAuley
PhD candidate
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