Lesson Plan - Problem Solving
Lesson Plan - Problem Solving
After he gave
$400 to John, he had twice as
much money as John. How much
money did John have at first?
(Kantowski 1977)
• Problem develops when students are given mathematics
question which they cannot answer directly or cannot apply their
acquired knowledge or given information within a very short time
interval.
• Problem solving in mathematics is an organised process that needs to
achieve the goal of problem.
• The aim of problem solving is to overcome obstacles set in the problem.
• In addition to overcome the obstacles, students need to analyze the
information given, decide and use much kind of strategies and methods to
solve the problems.
•Routine problem
•Non- routine problem
• Routine problem solving involves using at least one of the
four arithmetic operations and/or ratio to solve problems
that are practical in nature.
• Example: Sofia had 50 oranges. She gave some to her
friend. Now she has 40 oranges. How many did she give to
her friend?
• A non-routine problem is any complex problem that requires some degree
of creativity or originality to solve.
• Non-routine problems typically do not have an immediately apparent
strategy for solving them.
• Often times, these problems can be solved in multiple ways.
• Example: There are 45 questions in an exam. For every correct answer 5
marks awarded and for every wrong answer 3 marks are deducted. Melissa
scored 185 marks. How many correct answers did she give?
Find 45% of 125.
45
x 125 = 56.25
100
Step 1: Understand the problem.
Make sure that you read the question carefully several times.
We are looking for a number that is 45% of 125, we will let
x = the value we are looking for