Case studies of teaching problem solving

Summary

Some important results that relate to classroom learning and teaching of problem solving emerge from these case studies. These are now summarized as follows.

In terms of the students' potential learning experiences of problem solving, it was found that the students were mainly witnessing their teachers' demonstrations of using rules or algorithms for solution to problems. Repeated practice of solving the sorts of problems that occur in examinations was also emphatically included as part of the learning experience. The students were not exposed to a range of strategies that could possibly be used to solve the same problems. There was no explicit teaching of important problem solving skills such as translation skills (comprehending, analyzing, interpreting, and defining a given problem) and linkage skills (concept relatedness between two concepts or using cues from the problem statements to associate ideas, concepts, diagrams, etc. from memory). When teachers solve problems they use, in general, several strategies to solve the same class of problems and they are very careful and explicit about translating problem statements, making relevant linkages and checking.

These absences in the teachers' teaching of problem solving (and hence in the students' range of learning experiences) are particularly interesting because they are part of the teachers' own repertoire of skills. Accordingly, it may not be too difficult to get teachers to include them in their teaching. This would mean that the students' range of learning experiences for problem solving would be very much strengthened.