4 Conclusion

Problem analysis involves critical thinking processes, prescriptive activities, and warranted solutions. First, it involves a variety of critical thinking processes: synthesis of a problem statement, FEA, triangulation of data gathering, FCA, active listening, system-wide checks and balances, and reflective thinking (Dick et al., 2009). For example, thinking critically will help you avoid various FEA pitfalls such as Groupthink. Second, problem-solving depends on the type of problem and its structure, context, inputs, abstractness, and activities (Jonassen, 2004). Third, there are timesaving strategies and models for PA such as Jonassen’s idea of keeping a fault database, and Lee and Owens’s idea of actively categorizing participants’ needs during interviews and addressing systemic issues first.

There is a need for further research on PA for novice instructional designers due to the limited amount of broad literature available on this topic. The current literature only addressed PA within articles about models and their processes. There does not appear to be a contrastive analysis of existing processes and models on this topic, nor is there much literature on the nature of problems and the cognitive processes involved in addressing them. There appears to be more literature on RCA than PA. Jonassen (2004) noted the lack of ID literature on problem-solving. Subsequently, he made it his mission to focus his research on it. Therefore, the author dedicates this monograph to his mission to establish a meta-theory of problem-solving.