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Our research aim is to propose a support model for problem‐solving oriented learning (PSOL) and implement a humancentric system that supports learners and thereby develops their ability. We propose a human‐centric interactive framework for PSOL by employing the research results in the educational psychology field. The characteristic of our research is that our system understands the principle knowledge to support users through human‐computer interactions. It is very important to clarify the principle knowledge of the target application domain and develop the system based on it. We call the principle knowledge as ontology. By embedding ontology into the basis of a system, we can implement a more positive navigation function. In this paper, we analyze the learners’ cognitive activities in PSOL, propose a support model that encourages self‐regulated planning processes, and illustrate an interactive environment for making effective problem‐solving and learning processes based on the ontology.

The paper aims to investigate how a tablet's design features, namely, its navigation design and visual appearance, influence users' enjoyment, concentration and control, when using tablets for problem-solving, and thereafter how their core flow experiences impact their perceived performance and efficiency with problem-solving.

This study uses a field survey approach to engage 87 participants in a decision sciences class to use eTextbooks and a few other associated educational apps including CourseSmart app for e-notes and highlighting, sketchbook app and a calculator app in tablets to resolve class problems at a large US university.

This study finds that the tablet's interface design features (navigation and visual appearance) make users engrossed in their problem-solving processes with perceived enjoyment, concentration and control. This, in turn, impacts their perceived performance and efficiency. Moreover, visual appearance plays the most significant role in arousing users' affective emotions (i.e. enjoyment), while interface navigation is crucial to engage users' deep concentration (i.e. cognition) and control for problem-solving.

Modern tablets are being used widely in various sectors. More in-depth user flow experience design associated with tablet use for problem-solving contexts should be further advocated in order to provide more engaging and meaningful flow experiences to users.

This study shows that the design of the tablet interface can engage users in problem-solving processes in both affective and cognitive ways. It provides valuable insights on tablet interface design for problem-solving.

This paper aims to introduce a new phenomenon related to creative motivation called creative resolve response (CRR). CRR predicts how creative motivation will vary during problem solving.

In total, 66 MBA students were asked to respond at random intervals during different class problem‐solving activities. Participants were asked to rate on two preset scales their perceived certainty of solving the problem successfully and creativity level required. Mean creativity required responses were calculated for subgroups with different cognitive style ranges at each outcome certainty level. T‐tests were used to determine significant differences between various means.

The results suggest that creative motivation will vary systematically as a problem solver's perception of problem solving progress increases in a wax‐wane‐wax pattern.

Post hoc analysis suggested that potentially confounding effects related to problem heterogeneity, learning effects, environment, group interaction and interviewer response bias were not significant. However the relatively small sample size and limited scope of the problem activities suggests that further research is required to establish the extent to which the findings can be generalised.

CRR promises a new form of extrinsic control for managers to enhance creativity via extrinsic motivation. The author makes suggestions on how managers may enhance creativity by influencing employees to reconsider their perceived level of problem‐solving progress.

This paper links expectancy theory, cognitive style and creative motivation, and provides an alternative approach to trying directly to motivate employees to be more creative.

It is understood that the personality traits and intelligence levels of the tourist guides directly or indirectly affect their ability to solve the problems they encounter on tours. This study aims to test whether emotional intelligence has an intermediary effect on the problem-solving skills of professional tourist guides with perfectionist personality traits.

Field research was conducted within the study to analyze suggestions on the interaction of variables on an empirical basis, and data were collected using interview, document review and survey technique. Thus, the mixed-methods approach was used in the study. Within the scope of this study in which 410 professional tourist guides were surveyed, a substantial part of the research data was obtained through the application of the survey technique. Besides, interviews were carried out with 12 professional tourist guides. The clues obtained by the qualitative study were transformed into hypotheses within the scope of the quantitative study, and the intermediary effect was tested.

A relationship between the main themes, sub-themes and codes was determined within the framework of the qualitative method. As a result of the mediation test, it has been revealed that emotional intelligence has an intermediary role in the relationship between perfectionism and problem-solving skills. According to the results of bootstrapping, the indirect effect of emotional intelligence on perfectionism and problem-solving skills was found out to be significant.

The study acknowledged that positive perfectionism, high emotional intelligence and problem-solving skills contributed to the professional tourist guides being willing to provide better service. In tune with the assumption that the more the quality of the tours carried out through agencies increases, the more satisfied tourists are; the study implicated that it would be advisable for agencies to prioritize the trainings provided for their tour guides to enhance their positive perfectionist, emotionally intelligent personalities and problem-solving skills. Given that professional tourist guides may create a positive country image with the quality service they provide, the significance of such trainings stretch beyond the benefits of such organizations.

Relevant variables were analyzed with a mixed method and applied on professional tourist guides.

The joint problem solving process is not just a matter of using a good logical system, or just a matter of effective interaction and sound group processes. It is a complex interplay between ‘social’ and ‘rational’ processes. Kepner and Tregoe, examined a number of successful problem solvers — and found that there was a consistent logical pattern in which they moved from problem definition, to a comparison of the problem situation with the non‐problem situation then on to locating the cause and finally on to some form of positive decision and action plan. Another social scientist, Norman Maier has suggested that effective group processes are important, but that an effective group solution depends largely on the nature of the actual problem; he also gave an account of the rational and group processes in joint problem solving. Others, such as Rensis Likert, believe that problem solving effectiveness is due primarily to supportive group relationships. Another writer, William Gore, attributes successful problem solving to a type of ‘unconscious’ non‐rational process which has to be surfaced and accepted in order to get the best solutions. Alex Osborn pioneered the creative element in problem solving and laid emphasis on brainstorming where the group generates a wide range of alternatives in an unrestricted manner prior to deciding on the best solution to a problem. All these writers have made a valuable contribution to understanding the joint problem solving process and any effective approach to problem‐solving should take serious account of this wide range of approaches. But the approaches are nevertheless very different and may be difficult to reconcile in a unified approach.

Research has shown that the problem-solving skills of adults with a vocational education and training (VET) background in technology-rich environments (TREs) are often inadequate. However, some adults with a VET background do have sound problem-solving skills. The present study aims to provide insight into the socio-demographic, work-related and everyday life factors that are associated with a strong problem-solving performance.

The study builds on large-scale data of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and gives insight into VET adults (N = 12,929) with strong problem-solving skills in 11 European countries.

This study introduces new knowledge with respect to the socio-demographic, work-related and everyday life background factors that contribute to successful VET adults’ problem-solving skills. The findings of the authors illustrate that a continuous process of development including non-formal and informal activity, as well as learning taking place at work, is associated with strong performance in problem-solving skills in TRE.

An important implication of this study is that this paper introduces novel knowledge for VET adults’ competences and can be used to support the development of VET adults’ problem-solving skills in TREs.

The study was conducted to explore new understanding about good problem-solvers in TREs with a VET background. The originality of the study derives from its focus on good problem-solvers in TREs related to a VET background. The findings can be used to create novel ways to enhance the development of VET adults’ problem-solving skills in TREs.

As a problem-solving tool, the kaizen event (KE) is underutilised in practice. Assuming this is due to a lack of group process quality during those events, the authors aimed to grasp what is needed during high-quality KE meetings. Guided by the phased approach for structured problem-solving, the authors built and explored a measure for enriching future KE research.

Six phases were used to code all verbal contributions (N = 5,442) in 21 diverse, videotaped KE meetings. Resembling state space grids, the authors visualised the course of each meeting with line graphs which were shown to ten individual kaizen experts as well as to the filmed kaizen groups.

From their reactions to the graphs the authors extracted high-quality KE process characteristics. At the end of each phase, that should be enacted sequentially, explicit group consensus appeared to be crucial. Some of the groups spent too little time on a group-shared understanding of the problem and its root causes. Surprisingly, the mixed-methods data suggested that small and infrequent deviations (“jumps”) to another phase might be necessary for a high-quality process. According to the newly developed quantitative process measure, when groups often jump from one phase to a distant, previous or next phase, this relates to low KE process quality.

A refined conceptual model and research agenda are offered for generating better solutions during KEs, and the authors urge examinations of the effects of well-crafted KE training.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of engineering knowledge creation in the context of product failure management, thereby extending knowledge about organizational learning and mindfulness to a largely unexplored context. The study addresses a gap in the literature by illustrating “engineering epistemology” as a critical knowledge asset that gives rise to superior problem solving – and potentially – superior business performance.

The authors conducted qualitative research based on phenomenological interviews with product engineers to generate a grounded theory about organizational knowledge creation. Rigorous analysis of narratives detailing the “lived lives” of problem solvers relied on a research protocol recommended by Corbin and Strauss.

The findings show that engineers' real‐world problem‐solving practices mirror Nonaka and Takeuchi's five phases of knowledge creation and the three stages of sensemaking in enactment theory, the genesis of Weick's notion of mindfulness. A synthesized model illustrates how a five‐step problem‐solving process facilitated by environmental conditions resulting in organizational learning is influenced by an “engineering epistemology”.

The sample was limited to engineers based primarily in the US Midwest. While the authors' methodology (grounded theory) was appropriate for theory generation, the results invite quantitative testing involving a larger and more diversified sample of engineers.

The paper highlights the social aspects of engineering problem solving that firms can optimize for effective problem investigation and higher organizational learning.

The paper conceptualizes problem‐solving teamwork as epistemic collaboration, with the often un‐optimized potential of generating organizational learning. It is, to the authors' knowledge, the first research to concentrate on modeling the dynamics of knowledge creation in an engineering problem‐solving context.

This study examined the impact of perceived threat and cohesion on the ability of groups to solve problems in a situation of social conflict. The self‐reports and behaviors of 31 groups of college males were studied within a comprehensive, strategic simulation of intergroup conflict. The simulation was based on both a value conflict and an economic competition over scarce resources. A coding scheme for group problem solving was created based in part on Janis' seven symptoms of groupthink. Change scores were calculated over different points in time to assess the relationships among perceived threat, group cohesion, and dysfunctional group problem solving. Large increases in perceived threat were significantly related to decrements in problem‐solving effectiveness regardless of whether cohesion was stable or increased. Groups who reported high and increasing levels of cohesion experienced a decrement in problem solving regardless of the increase in perceived threat, while groups who showed small changes in cohesion demonstrated decreased problem solving under high perceived threat. The results were consistent with Janis' model of groupthink, and Fisher's eclectic model of intergroup conflict.

This study concerned aspiring educational leaders’ problem-solving skill development, specifically through classroom instruction with real-world scenarios. Professional educators obtaining an advanced degree in educational administration at a public university were surveyed in the fall and spring about their problem-solving abilities. Participants were also asked to respond to real-world principal scenarios. Focus group interviews were conducted in the spring. Results indicated that participants’ confidence in their problem-solving abilities did improve, though their ability to address the real-world problems did not improve significantly. Participants identified the value of learning from real-world scenarios and professors who had experience as administrators, and they also recognized the importance of learning from one another during discussions of the scenarios. Participants indicated that they still needed experience working in actual administrative contexts.