An intervention programme of teaching problem solving strategies in Singapore schools: Preliminary case studies

Abstract

An intervention programme on the teaching or problem solving skills, consisting or the think-aloud and general problem solving strategies, was introduced as part of a chemistry in-service course to a group of Singapore teachers. Feedback from the teacher-participants on the programme and its usefulness to learning problem solving skills was favourable. In an attempt to investigate the effect of this programme on students' problem solving skills, case studies were undertaken a year later. This paper reports the findings of four case studies on the implementation of the intervention programme to chemistry students and evaluation of the students' problem solving performance and behaviour before and after the intervention. Four teachers, two from secondary schools (ages of students were 14-15) and two from junior colleges (ages of students were 16-17), were involved in the case studies. The methods of evaluation of the students' problem solving performance and behaviour varied among the four teachers. The quantitative perspective was emphasized by one; the qualitative was by the other three. The implications of the case studies for the teaching and learning of problem solving have been discussed.