Problem-Solving Skills In Students: Traditional Lectures Won't Help Young Adults Become Problem-Solvers, Study Reveals

College professors used to deliver traditional lectures might have to shift their style of teaching in order to help develop problem-solving skills in students. A study has learned that conventional lecturing isn't effective in helping young adults become ready for the real world.

The study has been conducted by researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and published in the Higher Education journal. It assessed the problem-skills of 1,000 college students at different levels of their undergraduates' degree and from varied courses and disciplines.

The researchers adopted a similar system used by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to study problem-solving skills in students. The students were then given tests to solve at the beginning and the end of one semester to evaluate their ability. The test took 15 minutes to finish.

The researchers learned that only the freshmen students showed an improved capacity for problem-solving at 10 percent. Upper year students, however, showed little or no improvement in problem-solving at all. The researchers concluded that the method of teaching had a huge effect on why this happened.

"It does not appear that the traditional, lecture-style of information delivery is well suited to helping students build those skills," co-study author Andis Klegeris said, according to the UBC press release. The result of such a teaching method makes students less competent when they do become contributors of the workforce in the real world.

Problem-solving is the person's ability to apply critical thinking in certain situations. It calls for making decisions that can bring positive outcomes. If a person lacks problem-solving skills, he will likely act or react on impulse without consideration and thought for the choices before him.

Employers value this quality among their workers and expect that higher education prepares young adults for this. It is sharpened when students are allowed to "discover knowledge," according to the experts. University professors could be hampering this by proceeding with standard lectures and memorizations.