The Elusive Search for Teachable Aspects of Problem Solving

Abstract

The ideas just presented serve to motivate the present chapter and its central question, ``Can problem solving be taught?'' These quotes are, respectively, from the National Education Association's (1961) The Central Purpose of American Education, the introduction to Lochhead and Clement's (1979) Cognitive Process Instruction, and Norman's (1980) chapter in Tuma and Reif's (1980) Problem Solving and Education. These quotes point to both the promise and the pitfalls of research on problem solving. The promise refers to the possibility of a scientifically based understanding of how to teach people to think. The pitfalls refer to the possibility of raising expectations about the teachability of problem solving that can only be met by a yet another wave of educational fads and cults.