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Volume 8 |
by Donald Robert Woods |
Strategies Fostering Thinking |
Many equate the teaching of problem solving with blackboard demonstrations and the assignment of homework problems. But research has shown this approach to be one of the least effective methods of developing problem-solving skills, which are among our most advanced mental skills, corresponding to the higher levels in B.S. Bloom's cognitive taxonomy. We teachers can do much more for our students than simply say, "Try solving these problems," or "Watch me while I write out this well-polished script of the highlights of the problem-solving process." What research has shown is that we can define problem solving and identify its cognitive and attitudinal components.
Students come to us with many misconceptions about problem solving, however, and with bad habits that students persist in using to approach problems. Students have been doing exercises for years and are generally quite good at it; along with their teachers, they have been calling this problem solving. Similarly, we teachers have been "working examples" on the board for years, and we think we're good at explaining and modeling the problem-solving process. In reality, it is only when we get stuck and feel panic at not knowing how to solve a problem that we really start to employ the skills this book addresses. When we use these important skills intuitively, we tend to dismiss them as "just experience."
The most challenging task in problem solving is to create a representation of the problem situation. Some call this "exploring the situation"; others describe it as making connections between the problem situation and the subject's background experience. Whatever it is called, each person approaches it uniquely. Knowledge and problem solving are intimately connected: How we learn affects how we retrieve ideas and how we create representations.
Knowledge about the principles and laws of biology, chemistry, physics and the Earth sciences is not sufficient. Each discipline also has specific tacit information from experience. This kind of information is difficulty to extract from our experience, let alone communicate to our students. Yet students need it for effective problem solving.
To develop problem solving skills, a teacher needs to assume the role of facilitator and coach, rather than lecturer and provider of information.