Problem Solving and Mathematics Education
Maria Miller, seen above, has an interesting and useful blog on mathematics for home schoolers , as well as other web resources, not the least of which appears to be a recent web page called " Math word problems — the do's and dont's of teaching problem solving in math " that I've just started looking at today. The most recent entries on her blog address this vital issue of teaching problem solving, via a couple of problems for 5th graders taken from a Canadian on-line resource. The first post Maria made on these problems reads as follows: I'd like for you to try solve these two 5th grade problems. They are from a very nice collection of word problems for kids by Canada's SchoolNet. I'd like to use them to illustrate problem solving. But before I do that and give you the solutions, please try to solve them yourself. And don't post solutions here for now; I will have to reject such comments. Solutions and discussion will follow in a few days. THE