However, despite the emphasis placed on problem solving, there is little guidance or training on how to do that. Students must be helped to develop a wide range of skills and strategies for solving a variety of problem types.” Instruction in the process of problem solving will need to be integrated early and continuously into each student’s mathematics education.
The development of problem solving skills should be a major goal of the mathematics program at every grade level. The Mathematics Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools 2 state: “Problem solving has been integrated throughout the six content strands. 1 In addition to the skills needed to understand and solve a problem, students need to have perseverance to bring it all together. These aspects correspond roughly to Polya’s steps 1, 2, and 3. I believe that many factors combine to create the difficulty: the nuances of each problem, the reading comprehension component, the application of skills, and the need for deeper understanding of computational skills. I was not surprised to see that the importance of problem solving is emphasized, considering that problem solving is always the most difficult aspect of the math curriculum to teach. Since I am switching grade levels, I recently reviewed Virginia’s standards for third grade mathematics. This is a change from teaching fourth grade, where I have spent most of my teaching career up to now. Understanding Problems: Using Bar Models with Common Core Taxonomies by Valerie Schwarz Introduction and Rationale
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