Problem Solving

Why should we teach students problem solving?  It is absolutely crucial to explicitely teach students problem solving skills.  For some students it may come naturally but for others, especially students with special needs, these skills need to be taught like an academic lesson.   Children with special needs, especially the autism population do not understand simple problem solving skills and often need to be talked through problems to reach a solution.  They often attend social skills classes which do this type of training for them. Teaching problem solving can only help students.  If they have a clear and knowing way of what to do when they come across any type of problem be it academic or social they will know what to do to get to a solution. The Big 6 model has 6 steps to problem solving: 1. Define the task 2. Information Seeking Strategies 3. Location and Access 4. Use of Information 5. Synthesis 6. Evaluation.