“Looking Back” to Solve Differently: Familiarity, Fluency, and Flexibility

Abstract

This article focuses on a specific fourth step of Polya's problem-solving process. In particular, it examines the extent to which the practice of looking back to solve differently has been integrated in mathematics classroom teaching and learning. The findings of the present study indicated, to a certain degree, that such practice was little known to high school students, and that a high level of mathematical preparations might not be a sufficient condition for students' inclination to the search for or consideration of more than one solution method. Pedagogical implications to emphasize the importance of the connectedness between different mathematics topics were discussed.