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Critical Analysis Paper

Analysis of Thorton’s, “Children Solving Problem”

Anaya Laboy
Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College
EDUC 2108: Teaching Mathematics and Technology
Prof. Lillie Albert
31 January 2024
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In Thornton’s book, Children Solving Problems, she talks extensively about the varying

influences that may affect a students’ learning and learning processes. Some major points that

were highlighted include environmental factors, psychological factors, and personal filters.

Although all these factors should be taken into consideration as a teacher all the time when

educating students, in Chapters five and six, Thornton chose to look into the significance of

learning and teaching problem solving in social contexts. Drawing from her theory of social

contexts and interactions holding some sort of significance in the learning process, Thornton

began formulating several assumptions such as “two wrongs can make a right” as well as

confidence impacting problem solving. To be able to fully understand why Thornton’s beliefs are

relevant today, we must first explore her position about problem solving and social interactions,

what aspects are important for teachers to know, how my own past experiences shape my

reactions to her beliefs, future implications for my own classroom.

According to Thornton, “Children learn a lot from watching other people, from listening,

and even from simply solving problems in a social setting… Joining in and working

collaboratively… [is] a powerful contribution to how a child’s skills develop.” (p. 94). Two

aspects of her beliefs that support problem solving leading to the development of higher

cognitive functions are “two wrongs can make a right” and building confidence is key. The idea

of “two wrongs can be a right” plays with the notion that collaboration and conflict with peers

leads to students being better problem solvers. In the event that the two or more students are

actively collaborating with each other without any issues, the students are able to bounce ideas

off each other without feeling anxiety or pressure. This allows students to use their shared

knowledge to build off of and grow to newer heights that they might otherwise neglect.
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In opposition to collaboration, an equally effective pathway would be through conflict.

Naturally, too much conflict can lead to ineffective amounts of collaboration, however, the right

amount can lead to new ideas being formed or challenged. Two or more students with different

ideas may experience a bit of conflict over who is correct but after the initial conflict, they may

be able to collaborate. This collaboration would be more creative in the sense that it is using

multiple facets to explain a singular concept. Ensuring that teachers keep in mind that minor

amounts of conflict and the maximum amount of space to collaborate is essential for students to

look outside themselves and explore the ideas of their peers. All too often teachers see any sort

of conflict as “bad” thus separating students from opposing viewpoints and not allowing them to

work it out themselves. If this continues students may in fact suffer as they were not allowed the

opportunity to expand their own scope instead of being kept in their comfort zone.

In my own experience, there have been times in which I have been in situations in which

I meshed very well with classmates when collaborating which led me to being more comfortable

speaking up and bringing my own opinions to the table. If accepted, I am more willing to

continue sharing my thoughts. However, if there is a bit of conflict, then at first I might be

hesitant to speak but sometimes after hearing their opinion I might either change my mind or

expand on their point using something that I have learned. When the parties are willing to put

their pride to the side and listen then conflicts hardly last and enhances the collaboration process

to be more effective than if they never had any conflict at all.

The second assumption focused on by Thornton is the important role that confidence

plays in students’ problem solving capabilities. As stated in the text, confidence may determine

“whether a child grows into a confident individual who expects to manage, to be able to solve
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problems, or one who is too anxiously insecure or too sure of failure to even try.” (Thornton, p.

113). As talked about in this quote as well as in an example expounded on earlier on in the

chapter, a student who believes that they are capable at something will perform exponentially

better than a student who is unsure or scared. This is important for teachers to take note of

because this is not exclusive to students. If a teacher is wary about their ability to teach a topic

then they might not do a very good job of teaching it to the students and the students are more

likely to pick up on their anxiety towards the topic. A teacher’s anxiety can heighten a student’s

anxiety especially if they were already nervous or questioning their abilities in any given topic.

In my own experience, I tend to get very anxious about history classes because I never

thought that I was good at history since many aspects of it are heavily reliant on memorization.

Although for many other subjects memorization was not a problem for me, I made myself

believe that memorizing history was somehow different. This led me to not participating in class

and also not doing well on some of the tests because I was so caught up in thinking that I wasn’t

good at history which distracted me from the actual test. Instead of constantly thinking about my

supposed shortcomings I should have thought about how this is a learning experience which

eventually helped me to do well in history classes in the future.

In conclusion, to understand why Thornton’s beliefs are relevant today, we explored her

position about problem solving and social interactions, what aspects are important for teachers to

know, and how my own past experiences shape my reactions to her beliefs. After understanding

such things, I now know the future implications on my future classroom will definitely take into

consideration most, if not all her beliefs. A huge change I am going to make to my classroom is

the setting and ensuring that I teach my students, and myself, to have a growth mindset which
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would serve to increase confidence and boost problem solving skills as well as higher cognitive

functioning. Along with that, I will strive to ensure that as a teacher I will take a step back when

conflict arises and only intervene when absolutely necessary but guide students to solve their

own conflicts.
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References

Thornton, S. (1995). The Social Context of Children’s Problem Solving. In Children Solving

Problems (pp. 93–126). essay, Harvard University Press.