Editor's Note: The following quartet of articles serves to frame and illustrate the current theme of our journal, problem solving.  Yager has succinctly framed the issue of teaching problem solving in our schools and the transfer of problem solving skills.  Woodward offers an authentic pattern for problem solving and a much-needed clarification of the vocabulary used in higher thinking skills.  Bay follows with a lucid discussion of problem solving in the quantitative realm while Schieffer and Schieffer use problem solving to address behavioral issues. Together, these four articles present a broad perspective of problem solving as an education and societal issue, with clear directions for teaching our young people ways to address their own problems in school or in the larger society.

About the Author:  Robert Yager is a Professor of Science Education at The University of Iowa.  He has directed over 100 institutes and workshops for science teachers.  He has been active with NCA efforts in Iowa schools where he has been an advocate for school reforms that change school experiences to mirror those in real life.

Developing problem-solving skills is something that schools often accept as a desirable goal in many curriculum areas.  However, there is little evidence that many students leave high school as better problem solvers than when they began.  This could mean that current curricula do not address problem solving adequately or appropriately. It could also mean that teachers, administrators, and other school staff members are poor at problem solving or at least do not model such skills in ways that students observe them or learn them.

Certainly mathematics and science represent two core areas where many tout their intention of helping students solve problems.  Yet the evidence is clear that few students can solve real problems—quantitative and/or societal ones—in contexts where they are found in the real world (Piel, 1993; Feynman, 1985).

Curriculum and instructional problems have never been more complicated.  This condition is caused in part because modern civilization is more complicated with many more problems than the human species has ever had to address.  We find ourselves in a global economy in which the United States is very powerful (but one which most proclaimed was in a major crisis just two decades ago).  We further find ourselves in an information age where the Internet affects all that we do.  Family structures are changing, the world of work has changed in terms of skill requirements and time, and research in cognitive science causes us to rethink learning and use of knowledge.

The traditional disciplines are changing—perhaps this is most apparent in the sciences.  Most science activity now occurs in laboratories with research teams, and most research is targeted (i.e., designed to solve problems as opposed to testing fundamental theories about how the natural world operates).  It is rare to find a single scientist working alone in a laboratory.

In several disciplines, schools have focused on a two-dimensional view of their fields.  This includes (a) a survey of what professionals in an area accept as central ideas and (b) practice with the skills that professionals use.  These concerns are often defined as the central concepts and the process skills common to a discipline.  Traditionally, these concepts and process skills have been identified and recorded in textbooks.  Teachers use such textbooks to direct students with the assumption that such actions will help students learn the concepts and demonstrate use of skills.  Unfortunately, however, few students can use the concepts or the skills so "learned" in any new context other than the one in which they were taught.

Many now call for schools to focus upon big ideas, such as responsible citizenship and self- understanding (National Research Council, 1996, p. 13; American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1990).  This is directed toward assisting learners to make wise decisions and to help them in resolving problems about life and living; in other words, it helps them solve problems in the real world as opposed to problems provided by teachers and textbooks.  Further, disciplines (at least the core ones of the standard curriculum) now focus on ethics, values, and the law.

Problem solving is an important skill that the school professional must do each day.  It is a skill that we must assist students to learn if they are to be successful in the future that they will inherit and help shape.  Adults (including teachers and others in schools) as well as students must learn to learn.  In so doing, they will have learned how to solve problems, and this will produce the kinds of citizens needed to resolve the problems of the time as well as the problems that students will encounter as adults.

So far, there is little evidence that schools help anyone to learn on his/her own.  This may be caused in part by too many teachers and administrators who do not recognize that students who appear to know the concepts and who can demonstrate the skills required in various disciplines, may not really know how to transfer those understandings.  Everyone must use information and skills in new contexts before there is any evidence that learning has occurred.

A major problem in education in this new century is the fact that few have learned to solve problems in ways that can be transferred any place else.  This may mean that few educators have learned to learn when in school or in their teacher education programs.

Science, mathematics, social studies, and technology areas all profess to teach problem solving and to value it in their students.  However, the failure of most students to succeed in these areas attests to the need for curriculum and instructional changes.  Schools might also do a better job if real problems (crossing traditional curriculum areas and focusing on local issues that the students see as relevant and tied to current conditions) were identified.  Working on real problems in schools may be a way to improve problem-solving skills.  Many argue as well that resolving current problems is the best way to prepare for the solution of future problems that are yet to be identified (National Research Council, 1996, p. 52; Yager and Roy, 1993; Lochhead and Yager, 1996).

References

American Association for the Advancement of Science-Project 2016 (1990).  Science for All Americans.  Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

Feynman, Richard P. (1985). O Americano, Outra Vez! (pp. 199-219).  Surely You're Joking,Mr. Feynman!  W.W. Norton & Company, New York, NY.

Lochhead, J. & Yager, R. E. (1996).  Is Science Sinking in a Sea of Knowledge?  A Theory of Conceptual Drift. SUNY Monograph, Robert E. Yager (ed.). National Science Teachers Association, Washington, DC.

National Research Council (1996). National Science Education Standards.  Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Piel, E. Joseph (1993).  Decision-Making: A Goal of STS. What Research Says to the Science Teacher, Volume 7, Chapter 20, (pp. 147-152), Robert E. Yager (ed.). National Science Teachers Association, Washington, DC.

Yager, R. R. & Roy, R. (1993). STS: Most Pervasive and Most Radical of Reform Approaches to “Science Education”.  What Research Says to the Science Teacher, Volume 7, (pp. 7-13), Robert E. Yager (ed.).  National Science Teachers Association, Washington, DC.