Evaluating the effectiveness of a framework for measuring students' engagement with problem solving episodes

The purpose of this study is to investigate the problem solving episodes that a group of post-primary students in Ireland engaged with during the problem solving process and to determine an effective assessment technique for measuring their problem solving abilities. A framework developed by Artzt and Armour-Thomas was implemented and evaluated within the classroom over a nine week period to assist students in developing their problem solving skills. Testing was conducted on the students to be able to differentiate between their abilities prior to the introduction of the framework. It was found that when students utilised the framework the number of episodes engaged with by the students increased and the number of correct answers to the problems also increased.