2025 Volume 65 Issue 3 Pages 523-534
Although many previous studies have emphasized problem-solving in elementary school science instruction, the 2018 and 2022 “National Assessment of Academic Ability” highlighted the problems with successful cultivation of problem-solving skills. We believe that even though learners have acquired the methods necessary for problem-solving, they have not been able to transfer these methods to other situations as learning strategies. In this study, with the aim of helping solve this problem, we developed a “step-by-step science teaching method for acquiring learning strategies” to enhance “problem-solving skills in a situation” and evaluated its effectiveness. This method is an instructional method that not only aims at the goals of the unit being taught, but also aims at simultaneously acquiring a learning strategy to enable learners to solve problems in situations autonomously. In science instruction, two types of problem-solving exist: the first type follows the problem-solving process indicated in the Courses of Study, and the second type solves the problems corresponding to each scene of the problem-solving process (e.g., making a prediction in a prediction or hypothesis setting scene, thinking of an experimental method in a verification plan making a scene, et cetera.). “Problem-solving in a situation” is the latter. “Problem-solving skills in a situation” encompasses three elements: the ability to solve problems in the scenario autonomously, the ability to categorize the problem situations and appropriately select and utilize learning strategies corresponding to each situation, and the ability to transfer the learning strategies acquired to other units of study. As a result of this teaching method, the percentage of children who were able to use strategies to appropriately categorize situations and use the appropriate problem-solving strategies for each situation increased. This was true not only for previously studied content but also for new content that had not yet been studied.
