A hybrid approach to promoting students' web-based problem-solving competence and learning attitude

Fostering problem-solving abilities has long been recognized as an important issue in education; however, past studies have shown that it is difficult and challenging to find effective learning strategies or tools for improving students' problem-solving abilities. To cope with this problem, in this study, a hybrid approach that integrates the cognitive apprenticeship model with the collaborative learning strategy is proposed for conducting web-based problem-solving activities. Students' problem-solving performance is examined in such a hybrid learning context. Furthermore, past studies indicate that cognitive load could affect learners' performance; thus, the influence of cognitive load on students' problem-solving effectiveness with this new approach is investigated in depth. The experimental results show that middle- and low-achievement students in the experimental group gained significant benefits from the hybrid approach in comparison with those who learned with the traditional approach. Accordingly, a discussion of how to accommodate the needs of different learning ability groups is provided. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.