Back to articles & videos

Solving the problem of problem-solving

iMaths 17/2/15

Note: iMaths is in its final year and will be discontinued at the end of 2024. If you’re looking for a primary maths resource written for the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0, explore Maths Trek.

The Australian Curriculum recognises that the problem solving skills fundamental to the development of numeracy in the classroom are also transferable to everyday life. However, the explicit teaching of problem solving can easily be overlooked in the hurly burly of the maths classroom. To solve this problem, iMaths provides teachers with a user-friendly framework for the explicit teaching of problem solving strategies.

We all have our preferred ways of solving problems, however students often default to more common problem solving strategies, such as Guess and Check or Draw a Diagram. Although these methods are perfectly acceptable in some situations, they are not always the most efficient methods. Without a knowledge of strategies, simply practising a plethora of problems does not necessarily build skill or capacity. iMaths teaches students a range of strategies and encourages the use of a variety of problem solving methods. In this way, students develop the skills to choose the most appropriate strategy to solve a given problem.

Once students understand and can use a range of strategies, they will approach problems with far more confidence. iMaths embeds important opportunities for students to do this. Within the Topics pages, students will find problems that directly relate to the concepts being taught, while the real-life problems in the more in-depth iMaths Investigations challenge students to make decisions at every step about the most efficient problem solving strategy to use.

At times students use problem solving strategies that may vary from the strategies you deem more efficient. However, as long as students can explain their thinking and reasoning they should be allowed to do what is best and most efficient for them. Student responses to the carefully constructed ‘Communicating and Reflecting’ questions, found in each Investigation Teaching Plan at iMaths Online, will give you insight into the cognitive problem solving processes individual students utilise during the Investigation – information that is very useful when allocating or designing differentiation tasks. There is even a ‘Problem solving checklist’ at the back of the Tracker Book for keeping notes on individual students’ problem solving development.

All in all, from the explicit teaching of strategies in the Problem Solving section of the iMaths Student Book to the diverse challenges offered in the Investigations, iMaths enables you and your students to solve the Problem of Problem Solving.

Want more? Watch the iMaths Problem Solving tutorial.

More iMaths articles & videos