Effectively Teaching Problem Solving

Teachers struggle everyday with how to effectively teach their students problem solving strategies that can be used during classroom instruction. Sometimes teachers lead too much during classroom discussion, facilitate all of the questioning, and decrease the amount of brainstorming between students. When teachers ask all the questions during classroom instruction, problem solving skills are defeated, students are less likely to respond to the questions presented, and those simple questions facilitated by the teacher only develop good recall of information by students (Wood, 1988; Myren, 1996). Educators need to allow students to openly discuss with each other appropriate questions to ask of each other during classroom instruction. By allowing time for brainstorming and open discussion, students are more open to use their own creativity and will bounce new ideas between them. Students may not learn as much factual information from a student led class discussion, but it all depends upon how the teacher conducts the lesson in the classroom. By first modeling how to ask good discussion questions, teachers will lead the students to become better thinkers and they will be able to identify better problem solving techniques (Wood, 1988). Lessons can then be structured around questions that students ask before instruction (Beyer, 1998).

Problem solving strategies must help each individual involved reach each other’s own needs (Shapiro & Watson, 2000). The following activities allow students to become active participants in problem solving: brainstorming, opening up class discussions, and using flow charts to organize discussed information (Hunkins, 1976). While openly discussing ideas, students need to learn that making mistakes during problem solving is acceptable and solutions can be found within them (Myren, 2006).

Palmer & Wehmeyer (2003) researched fourteen teachers, grades kindergarten through fifth, in a pilot program titled Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction. This program was designed to teach educators to teach students to direct their own learning through problem solving and promote self-determination. After students were presented a problem, students were asked to answer a set of questions such as:

What do I want to learn? What do I know about it? What must change for me to learn what I don’t know? What can I do to make this happen? (Palmer & Wehmeyer, 2003, p. 116)

Each set of questions are changed to meet the needs of different ability levels and they each are followed by instructional objectives for the teacher. The questions and objectives are constructed to enable goal setting and self-guided learning in the classroom (Palmer & Wehmeyer, 2003).

Evaluation of the program was done by Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) process that measures the programs’ efficiency. Results indicated that very young children, with aid of a teacher, are able to set learning goals. Results also indicated that students benefited from the program and were able to identify areas in their learning that needed improvement. Teachers found that the program was successful and it taught students to set personal goals and reflect on their learning, but that there was too little time to implement the program effectively (Palmer & Wehmeyer, 2003).