Agency in Framing Design Problems

• In Event: 28.077 - Strategies for Facilitating Skills Development in Problem-Based Learning

Abstract

Supporting students to direct their own learning is challenging. Here, we introduce framing agency, a construct defined as taking up opportunities to make consequential decisions about problems and how to proceed in learning and developing solutions. We analyzed two cases of student teams to describe framing agency in practice. We argue framing agency clarifies the kinds of learning experiences students need to overcome past experiences dominated by solving archetypical well-structured problems with predetermined solutions. Both teams faced impasses; one navigated the impasse by framing the problem, whereas the other treated the problem as given. Using sociolinguistic content analysis, we identify markers of agency in students’ talk. We compare and contrast the cases to illuminate nuances of framing agency.

Authors

• Vanessa Svihla, University of New Mexico

• Tryphenia B. Peele-Eady, University of New Mexico

• Yan Chen, University of Nevada - Las Vegas