This study compared students’ learning in troubleshooting and problem solving activities. The
troubleshooting activities provided students with solutions to conceptual problems in the form of
refutation texts; namely, solutions that portray common misconceptions, refute them, and then
present the accepted scientific ideas. They required students to individually diagnose these
solutions; that is, to identify the erroneous and correct parts of the solutions and explain in what
sense they differed, and later share their work in whole class discussions. The problem solving
activities required the students to individually solve these same problems, and later share their
work in whole class discussions. We compared the impact of the individual work stage in the
troubleshooting and problem solving activities on promoting argumentation in the subsequent class
discussions, and the effects of these activities on students’ engagement in self-repair processes;
namely, in learning processes …