Improving Problem Solving through Drawings

While working with third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade teachers in a National Science Foundation–sponsored project designed to enhance the mathematics and science teaching of in-service elementary teachers, we recognized that teaching mathematics problem solving was one of their greatest challenges. Discussions with the teachers revealed that most were using an algorithmic approach to problem solving with an emphasis on facts, rules, and procedures. Their students were being taught to solve word problems in a systematic, single-mode manner. We found that the teachers were most comfortable with the algorithmic approach because that is how they were taught mathematics when they were in school. As one teacher commented, “I was stunned to find out that not everyone worked math problems the same way.”