Ill-Structured Problem

An ill-structured problem is a problem that has multiple possible approaches, no single obvious answer, and enough complexity that it cannot be solved by applying a formula. The term is central to Problem-Based Learning: well-structured problems produce exercise (executing a known procedure against a known answer), while ill-structured problems produce genuine reasoning. The distinction matters for workshop design because most problems that feel "realistic" turn out to be well-structured in disguise — a problem whose solution path is obvious once the participant sees the relevant framework is structurally an exercise, not a problem.