Experimental Assessment of Problem Solving at the Combined Arms and ServicesStaff School

摘要

An important dimension of group problem-solving situations is the degree to whichresponsibility for task performance is distributed among group members. In some situations, such as juries, each member shares the same information and performs the same tasks as other members. In other situations a problem is subdivided, and individuals or subgroups work different aspects of it. For this research the problem--VARWARS--required the group to subdivide and work highly interdependent subproblems. Groups of students at various stages of completion of a 9-week course featuring problem-solving instruction were tested. Contrary to expectation, groups showed a significant and progressive decline in scores. Intact groups composed of students from the same class section performed worse than groups composed by mixing students from different sections. The objective performance score associated with VARWARS seems to be a good indicator of group performance.