**3. The team facing the challenge: obstacles and the expert's role at Sesi/ PR School's methodology**

For Sternberg [5], factors such as mental configuration or entrenchment can hinder the solution of problems. If the work team fixes on a specific strategy and, seeing the failure in the result, does not modify its strategy, the goal cannot be achieved. This is why experience in constantly exercising the brain to solve challenges prevents the individual from allowing functional fixation, which is nothing more than being unable to understand something by having only one way of seeing it to trigger in a certain situation [5].

*Metacognition in Learning*

achieve their goals [7].

no easy task.

will be solved.

motivational variables and self-processes. Self-regulation involves students who direct their behavior or strategies proactively to achieve self-established goals. They also rely on affective, cognitive, motivational, and behavioral feedback to modify or adjust their strategies and behaviors when they are unable, in the beginning, to

According to Albert and Steinberg [12], a self-regulatory competence has high potential for negative risk decline by adolescents. Metacognitive activities are also placed as strong allies for processing and monitoring abilities of adolescent cognitive activities [10]. Unfortunately, students not only have a poor knowledge basis in effective strategies but also do not understand how to select, evaluate, and adjust faulty strategies. For the authors, it is important to create classrooms for problemsolving by incorporating principles of self-regulation of learning in daily activities, optimizing the time factor to promote greater cognitive evolution. According to Dawkins [6], the time factor is an object of strong competition in society because the human brain cannot do more than one or more than a few things at a time. Therefore, working with learning strategies in school becomes essential when it

Students at Sesi School must constantly exercise self-regulation capacity, controlling the use of personal, behavioral, and environmental strategies [2]. The autonomy and the responsibility for learning are structuring axes of the students' learning [17, 18]. And these axes are strictly linked to problem-solving. That is, in order for the learning workshop's challenge to be unraveled and unveiled, the problem-solving cycle and self-regulation capacity must be well adjusted, which is

The first step of the cycle, besides demanding the identification of the problem/ challenge, is also affected by the generated motivation [5]. According to the author, our emotions can influence how we solve problems, sometimes harming the course. Extrinsic motivation must be strong to the point where, during the process, it has to be reverted to intrinsic motivation. Bzuneck [19] states that with the help of facilitators, extrinsic motivation can be changed, gradually, to intrinsic motivation. In research investigation of extrinsic motivation by external regulation, Bzuneck and Guimarães [20] affirm that there is a tendency, by students, to avoid the challenges, to lose initiative and to worry more about the completion of a certain task than with their quality, conferring the possibility of a certain type of reward or punishment for their (non) compliance. Adolescents are led to seek more extreme incentives to compensate for the brain's low motivational circuit [10]. Therefore, it is important to instigate the student to build the skills necessary to accomplish positive assignments. Intrinsic motivation facilitates and increases the chances that the problem

According to Schneider [21], although children do not effectively monitor the use of strategies, they can be trained to do so by developing mechanisms that are extended to adolescence and adulthood. The adolescent's cognitive capacity for learning self-regulation develops gradually in a linear fashion, responding better to reward than to punitive feedback, helping him to support long-term goals [12]. In the classroom, the teacher has a potential impact to develop monitoring and control processes by students of their own learning [21]. The elaboration of strategies and the organization of information are embedded in the actions implemented by the students in the classrooms of Sesi/PR School. The facilitating teacher, working with one of the contents from the web in the learning workshop, launches a study roadmap for the student and his or her team to conduct research before discussing with the class. In the midst of activities, the use of heuristic calls (mental shortcuts) becomes frequent. According to Sternberg [5], heuristics are implemented due to the limits of our working memory. The solution of problems

comes to ensuring survival and contribution to society.

**56**

For Rigon [24], the precursor of the methodology at Sesi/PR School, doing is the basis of the learning workshop, and arguing is one of the most important skills sought for the acquisition of experience in solving challenges. For the educator, formulating hypotheses, testing, analyzing, and formulating the rule are not only actions of mathematics or philosophy. They serve for any science—it is thorough knowledge. Therefore, it can be said that the methodology opposes functional fixation as an obstacle to solving problems, corroborating the efficient work with the challenge presented and, consequently, with the mission used by the school: "Forming leaders with social and environmental responsibility, with high level of negotiation, respectful and committed to cultural diversity and prepared to work in quality teams, leading them to be creative, ethical and innovative professional entrepreneurs and thus, face and win life challenges" [24].

The mission presented is complex, demanding, and instigating. It demands regulatory and self-regulatory efforts committed to learning. According to Rosário [23], self-regulating students of their learning see the events in school as opportunities to expand their experiences, valuing them. This becomes important insofar as these experiences lived and worked through strategies and can support the others that will come after the school period. For the author, "this process assumes 'skill & will,' that is, the application of cognitive and motivational resources to the concrete task of learning. [The strategies] should be trained on distinct types of school tasks to facilitate their transfer to other contexts, since students do not focus learning tasks in a similar way regardless of the contexts and nature of the learning tasks."

In cognitive psychology, Sternberg [5] defines "transfer" as the use of knowledge and/or skills from one situation to another, which can be of two types: the negative and the positive. The positive is the one brought by the author Rosário, which occurs when "[…] the solution of a previous problem makes it easier to solve a new problem, that is, the transference of a mental posture can help in solving problems" [5]. And this is also the one sought in the methodology of Sesi/PR School, when it proposes a learning workshop at each 2-month period. With each new workshop, students have the opportunity to practice the positive transfer in accordance with the experiences lived in the previous workshop.

Sternberg [5] states that an effective strategy to avoid negative transfer is incubation. This action promotes small pauses between the steps from the problemsolving cycle to promote conscious reflection of the problem. For the author, the incubation process allows new stimuli to activate new perspectives, promote the perception of analogy, and aid in mind relaxation to develop assertive attempts.

Another strategy considered effective by Sternberg [5] is the formation of a plan of action to solve the problem, working the prefrontal cortex. Planning also appears as one of the components of Zimmerman's self-regulation cycle [2], the so-called preliminary phase, which consists of analyzing the problem encountered in developing a plan that favors the achievement of the stipulated goal. In the methodology of Sesi/PR School, planning is one of the elements of the challenge resolution (**Figure 1**).

However, the ability to solve problems does not come only from planning or aspects already mentioned in this study. For Sternberg [5], knowledge is also a key factor in the process. For this reason, effective problem-solvers are called experts,

**59**

*Using Problem-Solving as a Method for the Development of Self-Regulation of Learning…*

that is, they have "[…] superior skills or achievements that reflect a well-developed and well-organized knowledge basis" [5]. Experts are able to devote more time to planning and organizing the problem and less time in implementing strategies to solve it. They also have "automation" to develop strategic steps transferred from previous experiences, prediction of certain events, and flexibility during the

However, to become an expert, one must practice, experiment, and experience.

Living and non-alienated experience activate the development of creativity, an important complementary aspect to problem-solving [5]. According to the author, creativity is the process by which something original is produced and that is also valid. It is creative who is an expert, who practices self-regulation and exercises the intrinsic motivation to reach his goals. "[…] Take advantage of what they know and

For Rigon [24], education serves to assist in the process of changing a society, to develop potentialities. Therefore, it is not linear. It can be said, therefore, that education, in the methodological vision of Sesi/PR School, also depends on the development of the creative process, which facilitates the use of previous experiences, mobilizes strategic planning, and promotes innovative solutions. Creativity, therefore, is one of the guiding principles of problem-solving. Perhaps, it would be bold to say that it is developed by and moves the cycle proposed by Sternberg [5].

Learning arises from the need for our genes to make predictions in unpredictable environments so they can survive in today's society. And that is why learning requires a motive and situations that involve its development. Autonomy and responsibility in learning demand experiment and experience of conflicts, challenges, and goals to be achieved that do not have to wait for the adult stage to be exercised. The more time we spend to develop problem-solving strategies, the more effective experts we will be to exercise the knowledge and skills most effectively

Problem-solving work in school can potentiate this development, especially in adolescence, as it becomes a challenge that drives the learner's motivational and neural capacity to learn. The phase of adolescence encompasses physiological and psychological changes that are directly influenced by the environment. The need to take greater risks to satiate the search for pleasure and reward can be positively influenced by the practice and experience of metacognitive activities strongly associated with the development of self-regulatory skills, helping in the decline of negative risk and potentiating subsidies for the development of cognitive mechanisms. Therefore, here are recommendations that can guide research and practice at

1.School's curriculum: for most countries, schools have to follow an established curriculum with compulsory contents and subjects. How to make learning meaningful if the school has to make students study the curriculum in order to

diverge from knowledge to create innovative methods and products" [5].

Practice and living should focus on the acquisition of new skills, not repetition without purpose [5]. For Rigon [24], a school must be the place of doing and not the simple "decorating" of disconnected and meaningless content for real life. That is, why the author, referring to the methodology of the learning workshops, affirms that the integration of knowledge is done through transdisciplinarity and that this should be the form of content approach in school, intertwined by the proposed

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88195*

process.

challenge.

**4. Conclusion**

acquired.

enhancing adolescents' learning experiences:

**Figure 1.** *Elements of resolution of the challenge from the learning workshop [24].*

#### *Using Problem-Solving as a Method for the Development of Self-Regulation of Learning… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88195*

that is, they have "[…] superior skills or achievements that reflect a well-developed and well-organized knowledge basis" [5]. Experts are able to devote more time to planning and organizing the problem and less time in implementing strategies to solve it. They also have "automation" to develop strategic steps transferred from previous experiences, prediction of certain events, and flexibility during the process.

However, to become an expert, one must practice, experiment, and experience. Practice and living should focus on the acquisition of new skills, not repetition without purpose [5]. For Rigon [24], a school must be the place of doing and not the simple "decorating" of disconnected and meaningless content for real life. That is, why the author, referring to the methodology of the learning workshops, affirms that the integration of knowledge is done through transdisciplinarity and that this should be the form of content approach in school, intertwined by the proposed challenge.

Living and non-alienated experience activate the development of creativity, an important complementary aspect to problem-solving [5]. According to the author, creativity is the process by which something original is produced and that is also valid. It is creative who is an expert, who practices self-regulation and exercises the intrinsic motivation to reach his goals. "[…] Take advantage of what they know and diverge from knowledge to create innovative methods and products" [5].

For Rigon [24], education serves to assist in the process of changing a society, to develop potentialities. Therefore, it is not linear. It can be said, therefore, that education, in the methodological vision of Sesi/PR School, also depends on the development of the creative process, which facilitates the use of previous experiences, mobilizes strategic planning, and promotes innovative solutions. Creativity, therefore, is one of the guiding principles of problem-solving. Perhaps, it would be bold to say that it is developed by and moves the cycle proposed by Sternberg [5].
