Problem Solving in the School Curriculum from a Design Perspective

In this symposium, the participants discuss some preliminary data collected from their problem solving project which uses a design experiment approach. Their approach to problem solving in the school curriculum is in tandem with what Schoenfeld (2007) claimed: "Crafting instruction that would make a wide range of problem-solving strategies accessible to students would be a very valuable contribution. This is an engineering task rather than a conceptual one" (p. 541). In the first paper, the participants look at how two teachers on this project taught problem solving. As good problems are key to the successful implementation of their project, in the second paper, they focus on some of the problems that were used in the project and discuss the views of the participating students on these problems. The third paper shows how an initially selected problem led to a substitute problem to meet their design criteria. The papers included in this symposium are: (1) Enacting a Problem Solving Curriculum (Leong Yew Hoong, Toh Tin Lam, Quek Khiok Seng, Jaguthsing Dindyal, Tay Eng Guan and Lou Sieu Tee); (2) Problems for a Problem Solving Curriculum (Jaguthsing Dindyal, Quek Khiok Seng, Leong Yew Hoong, Toh Tin Lam, Tay Eng Guan and Lou Sieu Tee); and (3) Resources for Teaching Problem Solving: A Problem to Discuss (Quek Khiok Seng, Toh Tin Lam, Jaguthsing Dindyal, Leong Yew Hoong, Tay Eng Guan and Lou Sieu Tee). Individual papers contain tables, figures and references. [For the complete proceedings, "Shaping the Future of Mathematics Education. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (33rd, Freemantle, Western Australia, Australia, July 3-7, 2010)," see ED520764.]