OPTIMIZING PROBLEM SOLVING ACTIVITY FOR TEACHING

MATHEMATICAL THINKING
Abdur Rahman Asari
Abstract: Experiencing problem solving activity is a very important activity in
mathematics learning. Even, problem solving should be in the heart of every
mathematics learning. However, the focus of this problem solving activity
should not be limited to mastery of the mathematical content. Through problem
solving activities, students should develop their thinking skills too. Teacher
needs to optimize every problem solving activity to develop students
mathematical thinking ability. In this paper, the author emphasizes the
importance of appropriate problem representation for teaching thinking skills.
The author recommends every mathematics teacher to encourage their
students to explore as many problem representations as possible, followed by
comparing and contrasting these representations to determine the most
appropriate representation.
Keywords: comparing and contrasting, mathematics, optimizing, problem
solving, representation, teaching thinking.

Introduction
Consider the folowing simple combinatoric problem: How many rectangles are there in
the following figure?

Figure 1. The original figure

Traditionally, teaching and learning processes for solving this problem may take a form
of an instructional conversation such the following.
Teacher (T) : Is a square also a rectangle?
Students (S) : Yes.
T

: So, how should we answer this problem?

: Count the number of Squares and also the number of rectangles the are
not squares.

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: Great. How many squares are there?

: 16

: Yes, that are the number of smallest squares. But, do you see many other
larger squares? For example 2 x 2 squares?

: Oh ... yes. There are 4 of 2 x 2 squares?

: Which squares do you notice? Can you show me?

: (Drawing a following picture on the whiteboard).

Figure 2: Student first reaction

T

: Good. But what about this square (while pointing his/her finger to the
Red-colored square in following figure).

Figure 3: Teachers scaffolding

S

: Oh yes... I forgot to consider it as one of the 2 x 2 squares...

: Good... but do not happy with it... there are many others of 2 x 2 squares
Look at the following figure

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Figure 4: Another Teachers Scaffolding

You can see that there are 9 of 2 x 2 squares that we can see in it.
But, you should investigate the number of 3 x 3 and 4 x 4 squares too.
Once you have finished all of this investigation, the next step you have to
explore the rectangles that are not squares. OK?
S

: OK..

: Good luck

Expected Teaching and Learning Activities

Being able to count quckly and come up with the solution of this problem is fine, but
more importantly is to develop students ability to determine for themselves
independently what to do, how to do, and why should do that way. Katagiri (2004)
mentioned that students ability to come up with ones own ideas, no matter how small,
and to execute one own independent-preferable actions, is the most important focus of
education. He, furthermore, claimed that the ability to find issues for oneself, to learn by
oneself, to think by oneself, to make judgments and to act independently is important to
enable students be able to challenge and solve problems more skillfully, regardless of
how society might change in the future. So, based on Katagiris opinion above, teaching
thinking is much more important than teaching the content.
This is in line with Gough (1991) who viewed thinking skills as crucial for educated
person to cope with a rapidly changing world. Teaching and Learning Research
Programme (2006) stated that solely learning a content-based curriculum will not
ensure children be able to give reasons for their conclusions, to think creatively and
flexibly, to solve problems and make good decisions. Therefore, teaching mathematical
thinking is also important. Teaching mathematical thinking will support the
development of technology, science, economic life, and even development in economy
(Stacey, 2007).

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In order to teach and help the students to think, we need to know the thinking
processes that are happening inside the head of every student. According to Swartz
(McGregor, 2007), the thinking processes consists of several kind of thinking, namely:
(1) generating ideas, (2) clarifying ideas, (3) Assessing the reasonableness of the ideas,
and (4) complex thinking (decision making and problem solving).
We need to consider all of those types of thinkings. We need to help students be able
and fluent in generating ideas, precisely clarify their own ideas, objectively assess the
generated ideas, and confidently determine their decision and solve the problem.
Back to the above Problem.
To help students to generate their ideas, the author would like to propose the following.
Teachers need to help their students to raise several questions for themselves:
1. What kind of rectangles should be considered in figure 1?
2. How to determine the number of the rectangles in it?
In the teaching and learning processes, these can be done by encouraging students to
find and realize by themselves that there are two types of rectangles in the figure 1,
namely: (1) squares, and (2) non-square rectangles. We can ask them to identify various
types of squares in figure 1, such as: 1 x 1 squares, 2 x 2 squares, 3 x 3 squares, and 4 x 4
square. However, since the problem asked the students to count the number of
rectangles, they are also expected to see that there are also several types of non-square
rectangles, namely: 1 x 2, 1 x 3, 1 x 4, 2 x 3, 2 x 4, and 3 x 4 rectangles.
However, students should be expected also to identify other ways to determine the
number of rectangles. These students should experience different ways of sorting and
classifying the figures. For example, rather than classifying rectangles into squares and
non-square rectangles, we can encourage our students to sort and classify the
rectangles based solely on the size of the rectangles. Possible classification of rectangles
in the figure 1 are then: 1 x 1, 1 x 2, 1 x 3, 1 x 4, 2 x 1, ........, 4 x 1, 4 x 2, 4 x 3, and 4 x 4.
Once these ideas are identified, the students are expected to have a clearer and better
understanding about the types of rectangle to be counted. They are also expected to
have better understanding, clearer ideas on steps required to count the number of
rectangles.
Having done these two types of thinking, students may proceed to apply their thoughts
and apply it to the problem. They may processes such a way mentioned above. But, once
they finish their work, the students should be encouraged to assess their ideas. For
example, when the students are faced with Picture 4, we should encourage the students
to criticize this method and find a better method to count. For example, we can provide
another way to process the problem, and ask the students to compare their method to
the following one.

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Figure 5. Left Corner Counting Method

Note: We just put the sign
to the left corner of a 2 x 2 square (if it is possible to
make a 2 x 2 square from that point).
Comparing this method, will provide a clearer picture for us to process the ideas. But,
the most important think is that these students were given a chance to assess their
thinking. Through this experience, the students are expected to always assess their
ideas and come up with better ideas. According to Katagiri (2004), using this method,
they are expected to come up with a more accurate and convenient counting method.
Even, they are expected to express the number of squares as a formula, and make a
more simple generalization.
Finally, the students should be given a chance to solve the entire problems
independently. Katagiri (2004) suggested that, to teach thinking using this problem,
teaher should realize that their students need to experience the following things,
namely: (1) clarify the meaning of the problem, (2) come up with a convenient counting
method, (3) sort and count, (4) come up with a method for clearly expressing how the
objects are sorted, (5) encode, (6) replace to Easy-to-Count Things in a Relationship of
Functional Equivalence, (7) express the Counting Method as a Formula, (8) Read the
Formula, dan (9) Generalize.

An Implementation Idea
Having discussed the expected teaching and learning processes, following is an example
of the implementation of teaching mathematical thinking using this problem.
Clarifying the Meaning of the Problem
Teacher (T) : what kind of shapes should we count in the figure 1?
Students (S) : rectangles
T

: how many types of rectangles do we need to figure out?

: two types: squares and rectangles

Generating Ideas for Sorting and Counting

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: what strategy will you use to solve the problem.

: I think we can use our experience on determining the number of squares

of this grid.

: O Ok... you are going to use that method... But, I just want some of you
to explore another way to answer it.
What if we differentiate these figures into the the following figures?
1 x 1, 1 x 2, 1 x 3, 1 x 4 rectangles
2 x 1, 2 x 2, 2 x 3, 2 x 4 rectangles
3 x 1, 3 x 2, 3 x 3, 3 x 4 rectangles
4 x 1, 4 x 2, 4 x 3, 4 x 4 rectangles

Assessing Ideas through Comparing and Contrasting

T

: What is the total rectangles (asking to all students)

: (Students with first method come up with a specific number and

students with the second method may come up with a different number)

: Well, would you tell how did you do it? (consecutively asking each group
to share their ideas)

: (each group of students share their ideas)

: what would be the differences between the methods used by both

Groups? Which method is simpler? More efficient?

One example of comparing and contrasting the methods used to count the number of
rectangles could be like this.
Supposed that the two methods used to represent 1 x 2 rectangles by some students are
the following.

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Method 1

Method 2

Figure 6. Comparison of Method 1 and Method 2

So, having shown these two counting methods, we can ask our students to compare and
see the usefulness of Method 2 in finding the number of 1 x 2 rectangles in the grid. The
Method 1 that was done by tracing every square display a very complicated icture and
do not provide an idea on how to encode, develop relationship, and generalize. On the
other hand, the Method 2 show a very simple graphic and provide a better idea on how
to extend their thinking.
Teacher may ask the students to develop the following tables and identify the pattern.
The number of 1 x 1 rectangles are

4x4

The number of 1 x 2 rectangles are

4x3

The number of 1 x 3 rectangles are

4x2

The number of 1 x 4 rectangles are

4x1

So the total of 1 x 1, 1 x 2, 1 x 3, and 1 x 4 rectangles is 4 x (4 + 3 + 2 + 1)

The number of 2 x 1 rectangles are

3x4

The number of 2 x 2 rectangles are

3x3

The number of 2 x 3 rectangles are

3x2

The number of 2 x 4 rectangles are

3x1

So, the total of 2 x 1 2 x 2, 2 x 3, and 2 x 4 rectangles is 3 x (4 + 3 + 2 + 1)

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Observing these tables, students are expected to see the pattern. The students will
finally be expected to come up with a conclusion that the total number of squares that
can be seen from Picture 1 is (4 + 3 + 2 + 1) x (4 + 3 + 2 + 1), which is 100.
So, using the Method 2 above, students will be able to develop a relationship between
the grid and the number of rectangles contained in the grid. Furthermore, students are
made possible to use an inductive reasoning to draw a generalization which can be
apply to other similar problems. They may develop a skill to develop a mathematical
formula that for an n x n grids, there will be a total of n2(n+1)2 rectangles, which is
drawn from (n + + 3 + 2 + 1) (n + + 3 + 2 + 1).
Hence, by comparing and contrasting the both processes, and also their products,
students can be expected to experience additional mathematical thinking abilities such
as: encode into mathematical symbols, express the problem as a formula, solving the
formula, and be ready to generalize and transfer their understanding into a more
complicated problem.
The teacher could facilitate these accomplishment by asking right questions. Teacher
should questions the students to help them generate additional ideas, further clarify
their ideas, and to assess their own ideas. Through these questioning strategies, teacher
will help the students to have higher self confident and become more independent in
decision making and problem solving.

Closure
Teaching problem solving is important in mathematics learning. However, the focus
should not be given on students ability to answer the problem quickly and accurately.
Teacher should emphasize the cultivation of mathematical thinking since the ability to
think is much more important to prepare students to successfully face the never-ending
changing worlds. Thinking is much more important than content. Therefore, whenever
possible, we should optimize every moment in problem solving activity to improve
students mathematical thinking.
Without underestimating the role of other aspects of thinking activities, one thing for
sure that we can learn from the idea presented above is how to represent the problem.
Better representation of a problem will provide better chance for developing thinking.
This is in line with many studies and expert opinions related to the importance of
representation in mathematics learning (Grossman, 2010; Schnotz, W., Baadte, Muller, &
Rasch, 2010; Blatto-Vallee, Kelly, Gaustad, Porter, & Fonzi, 2007; Gagatsis, & Deliyianni,
2004; Gil_Garcia, & Villegas, 2003; Diezmann, & English, 2001; Seeger, 1998).
Therefore, the author recommends every mathematics teacher to focus and prioritize of
finding problem representations as many as possible. Rather than hurrying up to
proceed to the conclusion, teacher needs to help students to see and review possible

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representations of the problem. Students need to use the most appropriate

representation for developing their thinking, and the teacher should make it possible.
Furthermore, when several posiible representations are already available, teacher
should encourage students to compare and contrast all of those representations and
find the most appropriate one for thinking development. According to Marzano and
Pickering (1997), experiencing compare and contrast activity will also develop
students thinking ability and understanding. Through comparing and constrasting
activities, students are encouraged to identify similarities and differences. According to
Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001), Identifying Similarities and Differences is the
most effective strategy among other instructional strategies for classroom instruction.

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