Thursday, September 24, 2009

Problem Solving

What are strategies?
How do we develop them (or how do they develop in us)?
Given no situation is exactly the same as a previous one, how can we choose an appropriate course of action?
How can we explain mistakes?

Problem solving is plagued with tough questions like these. But at its core, it is concerned with 4 basic issues outlined by Polya 60 years ago:

1. Understanding the Problem (problem recognition, problem construction, the role of memory)
2. Develop a Solution (accessing memories; instatiation of schemata; compilation of complex plans, goals, strategies, procedures);
3. Trying out a Solution (keeping track of problem solving as it occurs, repairing problem areas; Goal resolution);
4. Looking Back (examining the overall solution process, labeling it and its part for future retrieval).

We use many different strategies to do the same kinds of things. This is evolutionarily advantageous given that: In the wild, many escape routes (or routes to gain food, mates, etc) may be blocked, necessitating a different strategy); and redundancy allows for backup systems to be called up when primary systems are inoperative.

3 comments:

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  2. As a TA I've noticed that college students typically quit rather than re-pivot when they reach an impasse. Negative affective issues such as lack of motivation, unwillingness to tolerate dead ends, and a negative view of their own ability rule the day more often than not. I can see that getting to kids early and not allowing these types of "negative scripts" and "unhealthy episodic memories" to become ingrained is a very important issue

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  3. During early childhood, the most important thing in problem solving is to enjoy the process of problem soving. Young children are really curious about everything even though it is not important from a teacher perspective. So, the teacher somtimes ignore the children's problem or give an answer directly and simply. This makes children lose their chance to experience the process of problem solving and they will feel that the process of problem solving is time consuming or not important.

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