TEACHING

PROBLEM
SOLVING SKILL

RIZZA M. OCMEJA
TBNHS

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 1
Let’s do this together…
Who will win the third round of tug-of-war?

Round 1: On one side are four handsome frogs,

each of equal strength. On the other side are five
fairy godmothers, also of equal strength. The
result is a tie.
Round 2: On one side is a fire-breathing dragon.
It is pitted against two of the fairy godmothers
and one handsome frog. Again, it’s a draw.
Round 3: The fire-breathing dragon and three
fairy godmothers are on one side and the four
handsome frogs are on the other.
Who will win the third round?

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 2
 10 Minutes Group Activity &
Presentation

Group 1
Group 2 Group 4
Group 3 Group 5
 Overall Learning Goals:
During this session, participants will:
• become familiar with the notion of teaching
through problem solving as a focus for
professional learning
• experience learning strategies through
problem solving
• develop strategies for teaching
through problem solving

4 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
 An Overview

Indicator 3 of RPMS/PPST – Apply range of

teaching strategies to develop critical & creative
thinking as well as higher order thinking skills

Critical Thinking
Skills Creative Thinking
Skills

Problem Solving and

Higher Order
Communication
Thinking Skills

5 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
 Artificial Intelligence (AI)

- can be broadly defined as technology

which replicates human behaviours and
abilities conventionally seen as
‘intelligent’.

- machines that have equal if not greater

intelligence than humans, and which can
perform any variety of tasks

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 6
 Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• “Assuming these innovations continue
to progress, the prospects for AI to
influence our health and happiness,
our economic security and our
working lives, are truly mindboggling.
Whether or not we are prepared for
this new machine age is another
question”

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 7
 Artificial Intelligence (AI)
“The fundamental challenge in our
education today is that, alongside its
great benefits, every technological
revolution mercilessly destroys jobs and
livelihoods” -Mark Carney

-the potential impact of an oncoming

wave of artificial intelligence

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 8
 We wont know what
children would know 10
years from now, so
inquiry is the process
children learn how to
learn and apply those
skills in the learning of
everything for the
future…
 WE CANNOT TEACH THE LEARNERS
TODAY THE WAY WE ARE TAUGHT
BEFORE. IF WE ARE TODAY…. THEN WE
ARE WARNED OF THE EFFECTS OF THE
REPLICATION HUMAN BEHAVIORS AND
ABILITIES TAKING OVER OUR SOCIETY
-RIZZA M. OCMEJA

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 10
 WHY TEACH PROBLEM SOLVING

• Problem solving requires two very important social

emotional skills
1. Self Awareness – Understanding one’s own emotions
and how they can affect ones actions
2. Social Awareness= Understanding that others have
emotions different than ours and that our actions can
affect other people’s emotions and actions
• Problem solving is a lifelong skill that will be applied
throughout a child’s academic career.
• Teaching problem solving skills gives children a healthy
perspective about resolving conflict.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 11
The 4 C’s Of Problem Solving Skills
 The Value of Teaching Through Problem
Solving
• The focus of the students’ attention on ideas
and sense making
• Develops the belief in students that they are
capable of doing problem solving and that
decision making makes sense makes sense!
• Provides a context to help students build
meaning for the concept
• Allows an entry point for a wide range of
students

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
The Value of Teaching Through Problem Solving

• Provides ongoing assessment data that can be

used to make instructional decisions, help
students succeed.
• Allows for educational extensions and
elaborations
• Engages students so that there are fewer
classroom discipline problems
• Develops “problem solving power”
• It is a lot of fun!

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
 Problem solving
• stresses critical thinking and decision making
skills
• True problem solving is the process of applying
a method – not known in advance – to a problem
that is subject to a specific set of conditions and
that the problem solver has not seen before, in
order to obtain a satisfactory solution.
• Exercises
• requires only the application of previously
learned procedures

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 16
PROBLEM SOLVING METHOD

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 17
 Why Study Problem Solving?
Problem Develop select and apply problem as they prove and solve
Solving problem , conduct investigation to help deepen their
understanding

Reasoning and Develop & apply reasoning skills ( Clarification, recognition of

Proving relationship, use of counter examples) to make & investigate
conjectures and construct and depend arguments

Reflecting Demonstrate that they are reflecting and on and monitoring their
thinking to help clarify their understanding as they complete their
investigation or solve a problem ( e.g.. by comparing and adjusting
strategies used, by explaining why they think their results are
reasonable by recording their thinking)

Selecting Tools Select and used a variety of concrete and electronic learning tools
and and appropriate computational strategies to investigate ideas and
Computational solve problem
Strategies

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 18
 Why Study Problem Solving?
Connecting Make connections among concepts and
procedures and relate learnings to situation or
phenomena drown from the other context ( From
other curriculum area)

Representing Create a variety of representation s of ideas

(Using models, diagrams graph and
dynamic representations )make connections
among them and apply them to solve
problems
Communicating Communicate thinking orally visually and in
writing using everyday language. A basic
vocabulary and variety of representations
and observing basic mathematical
connections
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 19
The Importance of Problem Solving

Children naturally and intuitively

solve problems in their everyday
lives. They seek solutions to sharing
toys with friends and build elaborate
structures in their play. Teachers who
use problem solving as the focus of
their instruction class help their
students to develop and expand
these intuitive strategies.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 20
The Importance of Problem Solving

With exposure, experience,

and shared learning, children
will develop a repertoire of
problem-solving strategies
that they can use flexibly
when faced with new
problem-solving situations.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 21
Key Messages
Teachers have a
responsibility to promote the
experience of problem-
solving strategies in the
classrooms, and to foster in
the students a positive
attitude towards problem
solving.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 22
Key Messages

The primary goal of

problem solving is
making sense of
real life situations.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 23
Key Messages
The problem-solving processes that
Kindergarten students will use look
very different from those that Grade 3
students use. Initially, students will
rely on intuition.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 24
 Key Messages
Problems serve two main purposes: to explore,
develop, and apply conceptual understanding of
theory or concept (teaching through problem
solving); and
to guide students through the development of
inquiry or problem-solving processes and
strategies (teaching about problem solving).

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 25
 Key Messages
The teacher’s role as
facilitator is crucial in the
provision of an effective
problem-solving
experience.

“Children must be taught how

to think not what to think”
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 26
Problem solving should permeate our
teaching.

Problem solving
should be the
mainstay of effective
teaching and should
be used as the basis
for meaningful
instruction.

27
When children become effective problem
solvers, they reap the benefits of:

• understanding and practicing

skills in context;
• being able to make
hypotheses, experiment,
draw conclusions, and use
trial and error;
• using flexible representations
to help them solve problems;

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 28
When children become effective problem solvers, they
reap the benefits of:

• wondering about and

questioning situations in
their world;
• persevering in tackling new
challenges;
• formulating and testing their
own explanations;
• communicating their
explanations and listening
to others’ explanations;
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 29
When children become effective problem solvers, they
reap the benefits of:

• participating in open-ended
experiences that have a
clear goal but a variety of
solution paths;
• developing strategies that
can be applied in new
situations;
• collaborating with others to
develop new strategies;
and…

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 30
 Connecting & Reflecting

Workshop – In your group

decide and make a choice
agree, disagree, or not sure.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 31
Agree, Disagree, Not Sure
1.Effective classrooms must be challenging and
engaging environments for all students, where
students learn significant concepts & theories.

2.Students are called to engage in solving rich and

relevant problems. These problems offer several
entry points so that all students can achieve, given
sufficient time and support.

3.Lessons are structured to build on students’

prior knowledge in a problem solving skills
4.Students develop their own varied solutions to
problems and thus develop a deeper understanding
of the real scenarios involved.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 32
 Agree, Disagree, Not Sure
• 5.Students consolidate their knowledge
through shared and independent practice.
• 6.Teachers select and/or organize
students’ solutions for sharing to highlight
students’ learning (e.g., gallery walk, math
congress).
• 7.Teachers need specific technical
knowledge and teaching pedagogy to
teach effectively.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 33
 Agree, Disagree, Not Sure
• 8.Traditional lecture method centers on the role of
teachers as transmitters and sources of
knowledge. Consequently, learners are viewed as
passive receivers of information.
• 9.Facilitating the teaching process that will enable
learners to describe the effects of a typhoon on
the community is teaching through problem
solving skills
• 10.Your community is prone to destructive
typhoons. In groups of 5, think of a possible
structure of a typhoon-proof house. Explain the
reasons behind its structure. The statement
involves problem solving skills
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 34
 WE CANNOT TEACH THE LEARNERS
TODAY THE WAY WE ARE TAUGHT
BEFORE. IF WE ARE TODAY…. THEN WE
ARE WARNED OF THE EFFECTS OF THE
REPLICATION HUMAN BEHAVIORS AND
ABILITIES TAKING OVER OUR SOCIETY
-RIZZA M. OCMEJA

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 35
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 36
 Professional Learning Opportunities

Collaborate with other teachers through:

• Co-teaching
• Coaching
• Teacher inquiry/study

View
• Coaching Videos on Demand
(www.curriculum.org)
• Deborah Loewenberg Ball webcast
(www.curriculum.org)
• E-workshop (www.eworkshop.on.ca)

37 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 38