Instructional Design Factors Prompting Reflective Thinking in Problem-Based Learning Environments: Comparing Middle School and College Students' Perceptions.

Reflective thinking skills are important in a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) environment by helping learners engage deeply in the problem-solving process. The research on learners' perceptions of factors prompting reflective thinking in a PBL environment is limited, and it is not clear whether there is a difference in perceptions of these factors according to learners' developmental stages. This study investigated students' perceptions of design factors prompting reflective learning in a PBL environment in samples of 122 middle school students and 749 college students. Results indicate that both middle school and college students perceive two factors as helpful to their reflective thinking: learning environment and scaffolding tools. Middle school students perceived learning environment as the most helpful factor, while college students perceived scaffolding tools as most helpful. Differences in learners perceptions were also found between the most helpful elements of the identified factors in each group. Suggestions are given for designing developmentally appropriate PBL learning environments that support reflective thinking based on these results. (Contains 3 tables and 23 references.) (Author/SLD)