Problem Solving Strategies
What's Your Plan?
Did you ever have a problem that you had to solve? How did you approach it? In solving any problem, it helps to have a working procedure. You might want to consider this four-step procedure: Understand, Plan, Try It, and Look Back.
- Understand-- Before you can solve a problem you must first understand it. Read and re-read the problem carefully to find all of the information and determine what the question is asking you to find.
- Plan-- Decide on what strategy you will use to answer the question.
- Try It-- After deciding on a plan, you should try it and see what answer you come up with
- Look Back-- Once you've tried it and found an answer, go back to the problem and see if you've really answered the question.
Problem Solving Strategies
There are many ways to solve a problem and it is important to encourage children to develop their own strategies based on their mathematical understanding. The link below offers some examples of strategies children might use.