Professor Lindsay Logan and Isabel Murphy review the Teachers TV programme Problem Solving in Primary Maths: The Session with teacher Mark Valentine.
Logan was responsible for drawing up the guidelines for problem solving in the maths curriculum in Scotland, while Murphy is an education officer and former headteacher.
They discuss some of the challenges of teaching problem solving:
- How and at what stage to introduce problem solving strategies
- The appropriate moment to intervene when children get stuck
- Ensuring children co-operate and listen to each other
- Reporting back as an essential part of the problem solving process
- The life skills promoted by including problem solving in the curriculum
