Teaching problem solving strategies - achieving great outcomes

Having a sound understanding of maths is important from childhood through to adulthood. However, a lot of adults frown with confusion when presented with a problem solving situation. Memories of their school days trigger feelings of failure, lack of resilience ‘this is too hard’ and lack of executive planning function in terms of being able to find a way through and finding the steps required to solve the problem. 

We can do better than that for our students. 

We can use the STAR model explicitly, to help them sort out what the problem is about, what info they need to use, what the problem is asking them to find out and what the answer of the problem will actually tell them. We can then make it explicit to the students the thought and planning processes required to be able to get started on the problem. We ask “have we done a problem like this before?”, “what kind of problem is it”, “do I need to draw a table or work backwards, spot a pattern?” – these are questions we can encourage students to ask during this incubation time. 

If the ‘S’ and ‘T’ are well done, than action will follow fairly smoothly. Reflection is the crucial step where we can ask students what worked and what didn't work and what they can use if a similar problem was to come up again. Students can’t tackle the ‘think about it stage’ particularly well if they hadn't had earlier problem solving experiences where they have learnt how to apply strategies such as draw a picture, act it out, spot a pattern, select an operation, and so on. 

Structuring problem solving experiences with all of these steps in mind will ensure students have a positive disposition to problem solving as well as a well-equipped tool box to choose from.