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Abstract:
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to make use of the computergenerated log files to derive task-specific indicator variables of
problem-solving processes of an exemplary problem task (TRAFFIC) to examine factors of relative importance and
thereby classify and differentiate high-performing problem-solving experts from lowperforming problem-solving novices.
Added to the task-specific indicators are non-task-specific variables collated from questionnaires administered in the
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 study.
Design/methodology/approach
The participants are 2,651 fifteen-year-old high-performing problem-solving experts and low-performing problem-solving
novices who have responded to the TRAFFIC problem task coming from the top ten high-performing economies in the
PISA 2012 digitalproblem-solving study. The educational data mining tool Classification and Regression Tree (CART) is the
main analytic technique used. Factors found for the students of the top ten highperforming Eastern economies are
compared with those of highperforming Western economies.
Findings
The factors affecting student performance in Eastern and Western high-performing economies share commonalities
and differences. In the Eastern economies, the factors identified in descending order of relative importance are:
Discovery of the optimal solution path of the problem task, mathematics self-efficacy, and experience with pure
mathematics tasks at school. In the Western economies, the factors identified in descending order of relative importance
are: Mathematics self- efficacy, discovery of the optimal solution path of the problem task, familiarity with mathematical
concepts, and mathematics work ethics.
Originality/value
Based on the findings, educational practitioners may be informed how to design problem-based learning (PBL) in their
respective economies. Furthermore, it is hoped that the methodologies developed are useful in furnishing new ideas to
the future studies of digital problem solving.
Author:
Author Description:
Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macao, China
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APA:
Jin, S., Cheung, K.-C., & Sit, P.-S. (2017). Task- and non-task-specific factors classifying problem-solving experts and novices: Comparing students of the top ten high-performing eastern and western economies in PISA 2012. Contemporary Educational Research Quarterly, 25(3),71-103.
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