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Topic X Development
of Problem
Solving
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1."
2."
3."
4."
5."
6."
7."
8."
X" INTRODUCTION
Georgie (a two-year old) wants to throw rocks out of the kitchen window. The
lawnmower is outside. Dad says that Georgie cant throw rocks out of the
window because he might "break the lawnmower with the rocks. Georgie says
I've got an idea. He goes outside, brings in some green peaches that he had
been playing with, and says: They wont break the lawnmower.
(Waters, 1989, p. 7)
78 X
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TOPIC 4
4.1
Formation of strategies;
"
Self-regulation.
It is found that different aspects are more significant at different stages of life, as
summarised in Table 4.1.
"
Table 4.1: Significant Stage in Life for the Three Aspects in the Development of
Problem Solving
Aspect
Formation strategies
Shows
more
prominence
during
toddlerhood (one through three years)
Cognitive self-regulation
Becomes more important during the preschool years (three to five years) as
children have more varied strategies and
representations from which to select and
greater cognitive resources to dedicate to
planning, self-monitoring, and other
regulatory processes.
"
TOPIC 4
4.1.1
79
Strategic Development
"
The study carried out by Mast et al. (1980) revealed that infants as young as three
months maintain a representation of a reinforcement contingency for up to 24
hours, and at the same time become emotionally disturbed when they could only
obtain a poor estimation of their original goal. In a separate study, Tronick (1989)
reported that the behaviours of infants are a kind of problem solving strategy,
and that the degree to which they engage in them indicate how successful they
are likely to be. Case (1985) suggested that the ability to represent how an action
meets a goal affects attainment of novel strategies. Although when there is a
model to copy and the actions are within the infants range of tasks, infants are
able to use other individuals, especially their mothers, to help them as tools in
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TOPIC 4
problem solving (Papousek & Papousek, 1987). This is in line with the findings of
Rogoff et al. (1992) where infants exhibited strategies to obtain the help of adults
in manipulating objects in ways that would have been impossible for the infants
themselves to do. Infants have the ability to use simple forms of means-end
analysis in the second half of the first year as reported by Wilats (1989).
It has been found that the development of problem-solving strategies follows
marked different courses when children have extensive experience with a task
than when they do not. Tasks or problems in which children have little
experience are usually accomplished by employing a single strategy. On the
other hand, multiple strategies are used in tasks in which children have
considerable experience.
Inhelder & Piaget (1958) employed the balance scale model as a means of
examining formal operation reasoning (Figure 4.2). One reason for the
widespread interest in balance scales is the simple, hierarchically related
sequence of rules through which children of different ages progress on the task
(Siegler, 1976), summarised in Table 4.2.
"
"
Figure 4.2: The balance scale the problem shown is a distance problem, with equal
numbers of weights placed at different distances from the fulcrum..
Source: Inhelder & Piaget, 1958
TOPIC 4
81
Table 4.2: Rules Employed by Children at Different Ages on the Balancing of the Scale
Rule
Description
No rule used
II
III
IV
"
In 1992, Trudge instructed children to work:
(a)"
alone;
He concluded that:
(a)"
(b)" In the absence of feedback, the only children who make progress are
beginners that are paired with relative experts.
(c)"
When one partner is more expert than the other one, the highest rule
achieved is that of the more advanced partner.
(Miller & Brownel, 1975; Mugny & Doise, 1978; Mackie, 1983; Russell et al.,
1990; Radziszewska, 1993).
A majority of the studies involving collaborative problem solving did not furnish
children with feedback on the correct answer. Generally, feedback provides a
basis for choosing among alternative perspectives and also provides an attractive
method for children to adopt an approach without seeming to give in to the
child or children who generated it. Ellis et al. (1993) worked on the beneficial
effects of collaboration in combination with feedback that stressed on childrens
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About 50% of the children who worked with a partner and obtained
feedback constantly performed the post-test correctly.
(b)" Less than 25% of those who worked on their own and received feedback
did similarly well.
(c)"
None of the children (either working alone or with a partner) who did not
receive feedback fared well.
Thus, students who worked with a partner and received feedback, performed
best. This translates to the fact that feedback may be critical both for the
generation of good ideas and their adoption. Ellis et al. (1993) also reported that
children who worked with a partner who employed the correct rule on both
occasions were expected to adopt the correct rule on their own during the posttest as compared to those with a partner who used the correct rule only at a later
opportunity (67% versus 15%). This is due to the fact that partners who
employed the correct rules on both instances exhibited higher convincing
arguments for it; whereas children who used the correct rule only during the
later occasion and also debated in favour of it, however appeared less expressive
and convincing in motivating the less expert partner to adopt it. This indicates
that feedback is not compulsory for beginners to adopt a new, superior approach
to solving mathematical problems. In addition, it also points out that either
external evidence of the validity of the better approach (provided by feedback) or
convincing arguments (made by children who employed the correct rule on both
occasions) appear important for good strategies to constantly win out.
ACTIVITY 4.1
Carry out a search in the internet on the ability of infants to employ
simple forms of means-ends analysis in the second half of the first
year. Briefly explain this phenomenon.
4.1.2
Representational Development
A majority of the progress in problem solving among children after the first year
arises from improving ability to internally represent goals, actions, objects and
events. Improvement in representational skills allows toddlers to employ a wider
range of the resources of the social world. Generally, they come up with longterm representations of the methods they have observed of other individuals'
problem solving. Subsequently, they employ these methods themselves later in
TOPIC 4
83
life. In addition, improved language ability, both expressive and receptive, also
contributes to the development of problem solving in this particular age group. It
is a rather surprising fact indeed that infants are able to alert their caretakers
regarding the problems they are facing and hope to solve, but the language skills
of toddlers provide them the opportunity to accurately indicate what they want
to achieve and why exactly they are unable to complete it themselves.
As they come closer to completing their first year of life, children show the ability
to walk or crawl to rooms or places that they cannot see at the beginning of their
journey, in order to get hold of toys or things that they are not able to see at the
beginning (Benson et al., 1989). Subsequently, by 18 months, they start taking
steps that help them maintain representations that otherwise may become
inaccessible. Allowing toddlers to remember goal-directed actions modelled by
adults or peers is one part of how increasing representation skills contribute to
development of problem solving (Meltzoff, 1985; Hannah & Meltzoff, 1993).
Furthermore, increasingly specific and durable representations permit toddlers to
take on the path to specific goals within an activity, rather than focusing on the
activity as a whole. It was found that positive affective reactions such as smiles
and abrupt movement of hands and arms to accomplishment of the tasks
increased with age. It appears that part of development of problem solving in the
range of one and three years of age include representing specific goals more
prominently in memory, and following the goals more single-mindedly.
The ability in solving problem improves as children become able to express
themselves using language in various circumstances and events. This is due to
the fact that language is a medium for transferring lessons gained on past
encountered problems to novel ones. This includes the improved understanding
among toddlers on what is being said to them by others. It has been found that
children as young as two years of age are already able to transfer strategies to
new problems similar to older ones and when children are reminded that the
problems are similar in nature (Crisafi & Brown, 1986).
Besides internal representations, toddlers also exhibit increasing ability to form
external representations as tools for solving problems. DeLoache (1987) reported
that young childrens understanding of the correspondence between a scale
model and a larger space is dependent upon the degree of physical similarity
between both the spaces. These researchers carried out an experiment where
children between 2.5 and 3.5 years old observed as a miniature toy was hidden in
a particular location in a scale model of the room. Subsequently, they were asked
to find the similar toy in the actual room itself. Overall, the ability of children in
locating the toy increased as the degree of similarity between the scale model and
the room increased, even though younger children required a higher degree of
similarity to understand the model-room relationship as compared to older
children. They concluded that the level of similarity between the objects within
84 X
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TOPIC 4
the two spaces and overall size of both spaces had profound effects on the
childrens performance. Thus similarity may affect accessibility whereby the
probability that childrens representation of one space will provide access to their
representation of the other space. Hence, toddlers can use scale models as tools
for solving problems, but have an affinity to confuse the representation as an
object in its own right with its role as symbol of another situation.
"
SELF-CHECK 4.1
In the experiment carried out by DeLoache (1987), the 2.5-year-olds
showed difficulties in translating between the model and the room. What
could be the source of young childrens difficulty with the scale model?
Suggest other tools that may be easier to be used than the scale model as a
representation of another object.
TOPIC 4
85
"
"
Unlike the language, mental imagery and spatial representations that are
acquired in the first two years of the childs life, specialised representations are
acquired much later in life. In addition, the acquisition of specialised
representations has a tendency to be less universal and more variable in timing
than acquisition of the broadly used ones. Speech, mental imagery and spatial
representations observed in all children are the results of the interaction between
biological maturation and general experience. On the other hand, the ability of a
child to learn how to write; to draw maps and diagrams; to understand graphs
and number lines; to use conventional measurement devices; and to perform
controlled scientific experiments are dependent upon the childs particular
experiences.
"
Maps are one important specialised and often used representation. The functions
of maps include:
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TOPIC 4
SELF-CHECK 4.2
A group of children were instructed to give two turtles identical
amounts of food. They divided the food by giving one piece to one
turtle, the next piece to the other turtle, and so on. Discuss the strategy
that was employed by the children in fulfilling the objective of the
experiment. As an adult, how will you guide the children in
improvising on the strategy employed?
"
According to Brown et al. (1989), the main difference between school and realworld problems is the frequent difficulty in school in identifying what exactly
the problem is. Children often reinterpret problems in ways that make sense to
them rather than solving the problem as originally presented. When children
were presented with a hypothesis that seemed intuitively unlikely, they
circumvented the suggestion that they test the hypothesis and instead produced
a more intuitively likely hypothesis and concentrated on collecting confirmatory
evidence for it. On the other hand, adults tested the hypothesis that was
suggested, regardless of its initial plausibility, and usually discovered that the
seemingly unlikely hypothesis was in actual fact correct. Hence, part of
development of problem solving among older children involves accepting goals
set by the social environment when the task calls for it (Klahr et al., 1993).
"
ACTIVITY 4.2
Search information about the goal sketch hypothesis proposed by Siegler
& Jenkins (1989) where children were able to make a discovery without
any trial and error. Discuss your findings with your coursemates.
TOPIC 4
4.1.3
87
Self-Regulation
"
Figure 4.4: The Tower of Hanoi
Source: http://www.labspaces.net
Most of the problem solving activities carried out by children in their day-to-day
lives take place with adults, rather than on their own. In these circumstances,
adults frequently plan the activities in such a way that remove the burden of
planning from the children, thus benefiting them. The term used to describe what
has been carried out by an adult to facilitate problem solving among children is
called scaffolding which involves the utilisation of specific strategies focused at
simultaneously allowing children to participate, maintaining their interest and at
the same time increasing their competence. (Wood et al., 1976). In general, adults
usually carry out the most crucial and difficult part of the tasks such as dividing
the tasks into sub-goals, coming up with the plans for achieving them and
keeping track of the success of different strategies whereas children are allowed
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to carry out the parts of the task they can complete successfully (Wertsch, 1978).
As the child exhibits increasing skill on the particular task, the adult slowly lets
go until the child is carrying out the task independently both the actions and the
self-regulatory aspects of the task. Studies carried out have indicated that
scaffolding is both an all-encompassing activity in the daily environment and
that it assists children to learn planning and other self-regulative skills. Adults
frequently provide preschoolers with scaffolded instruction and modify the type
of instruction given according to the competence of the learner (Wertsch et al.,
1980; Rogoff et al., 1984; Gauvain, 1992). Moss (1992) found that parents,
particularly mothers, provide scaffolding where he observed three strategies:
(a)"
A mother instructs the child with strategies it would not otherwise know
and not able to actually manage unaided for some time.
(b)" A mother encourages the child to keep using useful strategies that the child
has demonstrated.
(c)"
In addition, Conner et al. (1997) found that fathers are as good as mothers at
scaffolding. They also found that children that have received scaffolding show
longer-term improvements in skills as well as immediate improvements.
Language plays an important role in regulating thinking activities and is used to
communicate to others as well as to direct childrens problem solving. In general,
spontaneous self-directed speech appears in childrens problem solving around
the age of 4 or 5. Prior to this age, children at times do talk to themselves,
although, self-directed speech is not coordinated with their problem-solving
behaviour (Luria, 1961). In contrast, older children also employ self-directed
language to regulate their thinking activity; however, theirs cannot be heard,
unlike that of preschoolers (Frauenglass & Diaz, 1985; Berk, 1986; Bivens & Berk,
1990). Children usually talk to themselves while solving problems that are
challenging but not impossibly difficult (Berk & Garvin, 1984; Behrend et al.,
1989). It happens most often when children experience great difficulty in solving
a problem or following failure to solve a problem (Goodman, 1981). Self-directed
speech plays a crucial role in circumstances in which the childs problem is to
resist a tempting, but non-optimal, course of action. In other words, many
problems are tough not because it is difficult to identify what should be done but
because it is difficult to prevent oneself from employing a less desirable
alternative path.
TOPIC 4
89
SELF-CHECK 4.3
Briefly discuss the reasons why self-directed speech may facilitate
problem solving.
When faced with several strategies in solving a problem, children use conscious,
explicit, metacognitive knowledge about problems they are presented, available
strategies and their own cognitive capacities (Flavell& Wellman, 1977).
Generally, strategies that worked in the past are also selected. As children grow
up, they become increasingly skilled at monitoring their plans and adjusting
them according to the circumstances (Gardner & Rogoff, 1990). In contrast,
younger children do not modify their plans according to the different
instructions. However, several researchers have reported the failure of school age
children to plan various tasks such as writing (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987)
route planning (Gauvain & Rogoff, 1989), instructing other children (Ellis &
Rogoff, 1986) and referential communication (Cosgrove & Patterson, 1977).
Planning has both its advantages and disadvantages, as shown Table 4.3.
"
Disadvantages
"
Interaction with adults is one of the main factors that results in planning among
children. Hudson & Fivush (1991) found that children were more likely to plan
when they worked together with an adult as compared to when they worked on
their own. In addition, the experience of planning with adults also results in
more sophisticated planning when they later solve problems by themselves
(Radziszewska & Rogoff, 1988; Gauvain, 1992). On the other hand, experience
with peers and older children was found to be not as effective as experience with
adults. This may be due to the fact that adults discuss the strategies with the
younger children than peers, reminding them frequently about the goals of the
task and monitoring their progress more closely. Furthermore, adults are more
sensitive in modifying the type of help they provide according to the
requirement of the child. (Rogoff et., 1984; Gauvain, 1992).
Blaye et al. (1991) reported that children working in pairs fared better in solving
problems as compared to peers who worked on their own, and performed better
90 X
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"
SELF-CHECK 4.4
The effects of collaboration between young children who are beginners
and older children who are more expert tend to benefit the beginners
less than when they solved the problem with adults. Discuss the above
statement.
"
Skilled problem solvers usually practise several self-monitoring activities
including questioning and elaborating their own knowledge, evaluating their
degree of understanding, and thinking of counter-examples and possible
generalisations (Palincsar & Brown, 1984). Reciprocal teaching is a successful
example of this type of involvement and it emphasises four strategic activities
namely summarising, clarifying, questioning and anticipating future questions
(Palincsar & Brown, 1984; Brown & Palincsar, 1989).
"
SELF-CHECK 4.5
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
TOPIC 4
91
92 X
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x" Effective planning requires the ability to formulate actions in advance, as well
as skill at monitoring and modifying plans; as circumstances and goals
require.
x" Regulation of cognitive activities is often accomplished through interaction
among people working together rather than through the efforts of a single
individual.
x" Skilled problem solvers usually practise self-monitoring activities including
questioning and elaborating on their own knowledge; evaluating their degree
of understanding; and thinking of counterexamples and possible
generalisations.
Feedback
Reciprocal teaching
Representational development
Maps
Scaffolding
Mental models
Self-directed speech
Planning
Self-monitoring
Problem solving
Strategic development
1."
2."
3."
The Tower of Hanoi design using a single peg and three pegs is used to
create toys for children of different age groups. Discuss the respective skill
development and the suitable age group for both toys.
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