Complex Problems

in Complex Problem Solving:

Types, Levels, and Meaning in the Filed of Science Education

Jun-Ki Lee, Ph. D

Division of Science Education, Chonbuk National University, Republic of Korea

What was the Gordian Knot?

• The term “Gordian knot,” commonly used

to describe a complex or unsolvable prob-
lem, can be traced back to a legendary
chapter in the life of Alexander the Great.
Cutting the Gordian knot

• It is often used as a metaphor for

an intractable problem (untying an
impossibly-tangled knot) solved
easily by finding an approach to
the problem that renders the per-
ceived constraints of the problem
moot ("cutting the Gordian knot")
Complex problems in Korea
Complexity of a real-life problem
 Case #1. Cobra effect
• The cobra effect occurs when an attempted solution to a problem makes the problem worse, as a type of un-
intended consequence.

• The term is used to illustrate the causes of incorrect stimulation in economy and politics.
Case #1. Cobra effect
• The term cobra effect originated in an anecdote, set at the time of British rule of colonial India.

• The British government was concerned about the number of venomous cobra snakes in Delhi.

• The government therefore offered a bounty for every dead cobra. Initially this was a successful strategy as large

numbers of snakes were killed for the reward.

• Eventually, however, enterprising people began to breed cobras for the income. When the government became

aware of this, the reward program was scrapped, causing the cobra breeders to set the now-worthless snakes free.

• As a result, the wild cobra population further increased. The apparent solution for the problem made the situation

even worse.
Case #2. The Great Sparrow Campaign
 Case #2. The Great Sparrow Campaign
• The Great Sparrow Campaign(Chinese: 打麻雀运动 ) or Kill Sparrows Campaign (Chinese: 消灭麻
雀运动 ) was part of Mao Zedong’s Four Pest Campaign (Chinese: 除四害 ).

• A part of the Great Leap forward ( 大跃进 ) from 1958-1962, the goal of the Four Pest Campaign was
to get rid rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows.

• Sparrows were considered pests because they ate grain seeds. Farmers were encouraged to tear down
sparrows’ nests, break sparrows eggs, and bang pots and pans to scare sparrow away.

• Later, China’s authorities discovered that sparrows actually prefer to eat insects rather than grain seed.

• More importantly, sparrows had served an important function in the farm ecology by eating locusts.
Core competency for next generation

• Today, CPS is an established concept and has even influenced

large-scale assessments such as PISA, organized by the
OECD (OECD, 2014).

• According to the World Economic Forum, CPS is one of the

most important competencies required in the future (WEF,
2015).
PISA 2012, 2015
• A typical MicroDYN item as an example for a more simple system with different kinds of ef-
fects. For the selected sets of endogenous and exogenous variables any cover story is
possible (from Greiff et al., 2012, p. 192).
21st Century Skills (WEF)
A three-legged race for ‘science edu-
cation’ and ‘complex problem solving’
A three-legged race for ‘science edu-
cation’ and ‘complex problem solving’
• Global change in emphasis on scientific literacy in science curricula

• Improving scientific literacy through scientific knowledge used in everyday life

• The 'situation (or context)' presented in the science curriculum are gradually
replaced by the familiar real-world situation instead of the academic laboratory
situation.

• The most important thing in the classes of STS, PBL, SPI, STEM, STEAM and
ESD is to present realistic problem situations to students.
Real world Problem solving (e.g.
STEAM)
‘Teaching by subject’ vs. ‘Teaching by topic’
Multidisciplinary characteristic
Value-ladenness

Socio-scientific issue
CPS as Real-world problem solving (RWPS)
• These days, STEM teachers often present the real-world situation scenarios for
their classes or evaluations than before

• However, the teacher's story presented in order to enhance the reality in-
creases the complexity of the problem unintentionally.

• This is due to the uncontrolled nonlinear nature of real world problems.

• Therefore, a STEM teachers should not think of the situation as just part of sto-
rytelling, while presenting the situation necessary for their class or evaluation
What is complexity?

• Murray Gell-Mann defines complexity as the amount of informa-

tion needed to fully understand the system — the amount of
time, data, effort, and so on.

• Having high complexity means that more information is needed

to explain it.
Problem solving in a simple system

• If there is a problem situation, or a simple problem situation that

is viewed under a simple system paradigm that assumes a lin-
ear causal relationship, then clearly identifying A that is sus-
pected to be causing the problem is solved.
Simple, complicated, complex problems
Cartesian-Newtonian vs. Complexity paradigm
Problem Solving in a Complex System
• However, in complex problem situations under the complex system paradigm of making nonlinear assumptions, it is

difficult to say that the identification of A, which is likely to be the cause of D, has completely solved the problem.

• In complex problem situations, D's understanding should include not only A, but also C's that change with the

changes in B, A's that interact with A, and should also identify and address all possible interaction relationships, in-

cluding A-B-C-D, A-B, B-C and A-C, as well as the presence of individual actors.

• In this process, the latter, unlike sequential thinking, has a large cognitive load on students because more informa-

tion is required and multiple identifiers must be recalled at the same time (Campbell, 1988; Glouberman & Zim-

merman, 2004; Sweller & Chandler, 1994).

Examples of areas where CPS has
been emphasized
• Medical education (e.g. deciding how to operate and agonizing over side effects)

• Engineering & Design Education (e.g. Design considering citizens' safety and budget)

• Business administration (e.g. CEO's investment decision)

• Military Studies (e.g. determining the officer's operational order on the battlefield)

• International diplomacy and politics (e.g. trade negotiations among various countries)

• Physical Education (e.g. football coach's dilemma)

What types of situations do they as-
sume in complex issues?
• PBL (Problem based learning) in medical education

• Depending on the definedness or structuredness of the prob-

lem, there are two types of problems

• The problems that exist in the world are divided into two:
well-defined (or stereotyped) problems and not clearly de-
fined (or unstructured) problems.
Categorization of David H. Jonassen (2008 & 2011)

• Algorithmic problems • Diagnosis-solution problems

• Story problems • Strategic performance problems

• Rule using induction problems • Policy analysis problems

• Decision-making problems • Design problems

• Troubleshooting problems • Dilemma problems

Nature of Problem Situation
• In this case, the algorithmic problem and the story problem can be easily solved through
existing information, and it is a well-defined problem situation where there is already a
correct answer to evaluate whether or not the problem is solved correctly.

• On the other hand, problems with rule using induction , decision making, troubleshooting,
diagnosis-solution, strategic performance, policy analysis, design, and dilemma are prob-
lems that are not well-defined that can result in different solutions and different evaluation
criteria.

• The problems of the latter type are high in the complexity of the problem situation, and we
often call this when the problem is encountered as a ‘complex problem-solving process’.
Why some material is difficult to
learn?
• The complexity of the learning task corresponds to the type of objective characteristic of
the task itself

• The number of learning elements, such as concepts and procedures that make up a
learning task, and the degree of interaction between them

• If there are many learning elements in the learning task and the interaction among them
increases, the complexity that the learners feel is increased

• The more complex the system is, the more difficult it is to learn (Sweller & Chandler,
1994; Van Merrienboer & Sweller, 2005).
 Complexity is exponential

• Once the task has been modeled as a network, task complexity can be in-
dexed by identifying all possible paths to each goal of the task and by
summing the number of ties making up these paths using the method de-
scribed by Oeser and O’Brien (1967):

• where paths (p) are routes to particular goals (g) representing attainment
of an outcome. task complexity is indexed by the number of paths in the
network of events that lead to the attainment of task outcomes.

Hærem, Pentland, & Miller (2015)

Levels of complex situation (1)

• First, it is a calculation problem like eating a meal at a restaurant and

then paying for your own food and getting change.

• Second, there are problems related to repairing a car that does not
start well.

• Third, it is a problem for a counselor who faces a teenage pregnant

girl.
Levels of complex situation (2)
• First, there exists a certain knowledge and information to solve the problem, and the meta-knowledge
of the algorithm already exists as a problem-solving process to utilize it, and there is a correct answer
system to check whether the correct answer is derived.

• Second, potential alternatives available within the basic knowledge frame of the automobile start-up
mechanism are limited, low level of organization and complexity, but consensus among stakeholders is
considered to be a problem.

• Third, the complexity is high because the counselor and the counselee are different, and the growth of

the counselee depends on the social and cultural background. Therefore, it can be said that the defini-
tion of the problem is not clear, it is possible to change from time to time by intervention of various
viewpoints, and it is difficult to draw consensus due to many interests.
Cultural differences in the CPS

• A comparison of countries piloting self-driving cars:

If the bar is closer to 1, respondents placed a
greater emphasis on sparing more lives; if the bar is
closer to -1, respondents placed a smaller empha-
sis on sparing more lives; 0 is the global average.
• Awad, E. et al. (2018). The Moral Machine experi-
ment. Nature, 563, 59-64.
Factors that STEM teachers should consider be-
fore presenting complex problem situations
• 1) Type of problem situation (design, dilemma, etc.)

• 2) The number of elements presented in the problem situation

• 3) The number of interactions (relationships) between the elements presented in the problem situation

• 4) Number of information needed to solve the problem situation

• 5) Time pressure due to problem solving (existence of time limit)

• 6) Socio-cultural environment in which problematic situations are implicitly assumed

• 7) Familiarity from the viewpoint of the solver (student)

Thank you for listening!

“I think the next century

will be the century of com-
plexity”

- Steven Hawking -