Investigation of problem solving processes on group study based online and in-class settings

In this study, it is aimed to investigate how differ on the group study based problem solving processes designed in online and in-class settings. For this purpose, group based problem solving environments were designed and implemented to pre-service teachers. A case study method was used in this research. There were 27 pre-service teachers participated in the study and these students were divided in two groups as experimental1 (E1, N=12) and experimental2 (E2, N=15). In E1 online and in E2 in-class problem solving activities were carried out. Data of the study is gathered by; Open Ended Problem Solving Test (OEPST), researcher observation notes, transcripts of group works? video and audio recordings and clinical interviews. Qualitative approach is internalized in the analysis of the obtained data; document analysis, discourse analysis and descriptive statistical analysis techniques were used. MAXQDA 10 software was used for discourse analysis of data.As a result of this study, some differences were revealed between problem solving processes on group study based online and in-class settings. It was revealed that the quantity of discourses in E1 was more frequent and more task oriented than E2. The emergence of critical thoughts was more effective in online social interaction environment by enabling students to reflect their ideas and thoughts. Also students in E1 was found more effective than E2 by acting collaboratively and contributing to the group work socially. In addition to this, completion time of problem solving sessions in E1 revealed a longer time than E2. Also, experiencing the problem solving process by following problem solving steps was more effective than D2. Some suggestions were made to researchers and educators considering the results of the study.Keywords: Problem Solving, Polya's Problem Solving Steps, Group Study, Online Learning, Discourse Analysis