1

PROBLEM SOLVING1
Irma Saiz

1. Introduction
When discussing mathematics learning, the ability to solve problems frequently arises.
one of the most important contents to achieve.
The formulations about the role that problem solving plays in the learning of mathematics
They vary: there is talk of motivation, application, contact with reality, etc.
These formulations have varied, furthermore, over time, but this is more complicated to determine. The
lack of a centralized basic curriculum, of guidelines or methodological suggestions for teachers, of public-
updated actions and even the coexistence of publications from very different times and very different approaches,
it complicates the task of following the line or lines of change undergone by this topic throughout the years in our country.
It is also possible to analyze how the reform known as "modern mathematics" criticized the, "problems
"Type" of traditional teaching, being highly focused on mathematical structures, caused in some measure
measured the disappearance of specific problems in teaching and the reduction of its role to illustrating the notions
often addressed through the use of schemes, the student's work was frequently reduced to the search for
good scheme to use.
It is possible, however, to distinguish between a problem that appears as the occasion to apply knowledge.
recently acquired, an opportunity to, for example, use operations in very simple situations (the case
typical of the 'sum', 'division' problem, etc.) and the problem in which students are expected to discover
a new mathematical notion as a response to the situation posed.
2. The problem in history and in mathematical research
Historically, it is known that mathematical concepts have arisen as responses to problems, both problems
from everyday life (land delimitation, etc.) as problems linked to other sciences (physics, astronomy, etc.) or
still internal problems of mathematical science (expansion of numerical fields, organization of knowledge
tos, etc.).
In some cases, these problems were reformulated and partially resolved based on the knowledge.
preexisting or caused, in others, the construction of new mathematical resources for their total resolution or
for the demonstration of the falsehood of your statement.
The researcher in mathematics continues that task. His activity consists of solving problems that have not yet been solved.
Make hypotheses, seek alternative paths, abandon those that do not lead to the desired results, etc.
But in order to communicate it to the scientific community to which he belongs, he must first determine what he thinks.
having found, [...] to suppress all useless reflections, the traces of mistakes made and the paths
erratic. The reasons that led him in that direction and the personal conditions that have
led to success2.
The results found by a researcher are presented to the community within the most general theories.
in which they continue to be valid, thus producing a depersonalization, decontextualization, and detemporalization
action of knowledge.

3. The problem in teaching

The work of the teacher is, to some extent, the opposite of the work of the researcher; it must produce a recontextualization.
and a repersonalization of knowledge. This will turn into the knowledge of a student, it is
to say, a rather natural response to relatively particular conditions. [...] Then the professor must simulate-
He makes in his class a scientific microsociety if he wants knowledge to be economic forms for posing.
good questions and settle debates, if you want languages to be instruments to control situations of for-
molding and that the demonstrations are proofs.[...]3
Students must in turn recontextualize and repersonalize their knowledge in such a way that they can identify
to align its production with the knowledge developed in the scientific and cultural community of its time.
The teaching of mathematics generally reduces its presentation to the theories produced as they have been ex-
positions, hiding the production conditions, the problems or issues that gave rise to them, preventing,
on one hand, to know what the true activity of a mathematician is and, on the other, showing a mathematics here-
beautifully organized and reduced to theories and definitions.

1
Sources for curricular transformation. Mathematics, Buenos Aires, 1996, Ministry of Culture and Education of the Nation
2
Brousseau, Cuy, 1986, Fundamentals and Methods of Mathematics Didactics, Faculty of Mathematics, Astronomy and Physics, University
National of Córdoba.
3
The same.
 2

Problems have played (and continue to play) different roles. For example, the well-known problem
type: appears in textbooks at the end of chapters and in classes after those where it was presented and
He exercised a new topic. The problem as practice, synthesis, and control of acquisitions intervenes at the end of
learning, as an opportunity to apply studied knowledge.
Frequently, if the problems are 'in the unit of', the students know they have to use the concepts
that they have just learned. If not, they look for whether they have already solved problems of the same type. It is generally about
identify what operation is to be performed with the data present in the statement, and thus many times they link the
numerical data with some operation based on indicators from the text without any control over its meaning.
For example, in a 3rd grade class (beginning of the year), the teacher poses the following problem:
On Sunday, at the barbecue, 122 meat empanadas and 130 ham and cheese empanadas were distributed. How many e-
How many empanadas were distributed in total?
The students, grouped into teams of 4 or 5, begin to solve the problem. Murmurs of doubt, discomfort and
discussions soon make themselves felt. The teacher, surprised by the difficulty of solving a problem in
simple principle, direct application of an operation learned long ago, listen to the comments.
These could be summarized as follows: 'We would need to divide..., but we still don't know how to divide by 3 digits, so'
let's subtract." The word "distribute" associated with the operation divide, and the stereotype of using certain words
prevents the recognition of a situation that can be easily dealt with using addition: How much in total? You add.
each one? It divides...
Along with the active methods or the commented one identified as New School, the problem appears as a motivator.
tion, abandoning the last pages of each unit to focus on the first ones. What is their goal?: to introduce the
mathematics from everyday situations, from lived experiences or at least that 'talk' about daily life,
this would initially allow transforming it from cold or distant to close and practical.
The observation is frequent: including statements with everyday issues does not guarantee the motivation of the
students to solve them, happening, moreover, that the problems of reality are often too
complexes to be addressed as such in teaching and too determined by the occasional for it to be
considering the coherence of the knowledge.
A new approach to the role of problems
Starting in the seventies and, in particular, due to the failure of modern mathematics, the need arises to
rethinking the learning of mathematics and particularly the role that problem-solving plays in that learning
problems.
The diagnostics and assessments conducted indicate that the students possess mathematical knowledge.
but these are not available nor can they be mobilized to be used in situations where that is the case
require.
It has not been achieved that the learnings make sense for the students, that the knowledge is constructed with
meaning.
An important part of the meaning of knowledge is given by recognizing what the situations are in
Such knowledge is useful, but also for recognizing what the limits of its use are, what they are
the relationships it maintains with other concepts, what are the ways of 'speaking' about them, what are its pro-
properties, what are their forms of representation, what errors do they avoid, what are the forms of validation
tion of the responses.
Knowing mathematics is not just about learning definitions and theorems, but recognizing the opportunity to use them afterward.
themselves and apply them; we know well that doing mathematics means dealing with problems. We only do mathematics
when we deal with problems, but sometimes it is forgotten that solving a problem is just part of
work; finding the right questions is as important as finding the answers. A good reproduction
on the part of the student of a scientific activity would require him to act, to formulate, to test, to build mode-
the languages, concepts, theories, that I exchange with others, that I recognize those that conform to the
culture, which takes those that are useful to it, etc.4
Doing math is searching for solutions to problems, but also agreeing on those solutions and for
it is necessary to test, argue, discuss, verify and make verify, try to convince, get involved in the
search for the truth of the claims made, not to accept those of others a priori, etc.
In mathematics, the construction of meanings is often done through purposeful actions, that is,
actions that allow reaching an objective, solving a problem, answering a question, in the face of a situation of
that which the subject has managed to appropriate. It is the actions of the subject in specific situations that give meaning to
the knowledge; these function first as more or less implicit adequate resources before acquiring a
true status, before being identified, named, and consciously reused in other contexts5.

4
Brousscau, Guy, cited work.
5
Ermel, 1993, Digital Learning and Problem Solving, Elementary Course INRP, Hatier, Paris.
 3

In summary, we propose a conception of learning that seeks the construction of knowledge.

through problem solving.
5. What is a problem?
Different authors point out definitions of 'problem', taking into account different aspects, but we can primarily...
I begin by advancing a definition saying that we will talk about a problematic situation when the student encounters
a question for which there is no immediate answer, when one does not immediately find a way that
relate the data of the problem with the answer you finally want to provide.
Responding to 'what is 7 x 8?' can be a simple exercise or a memory recall for 3rd or 4th-grade children.
degree, but it constitutes a problem for 2nd grade students who are just starting to work with multiplication.
ction.
Jean Brun states: "From a psychological perspective, a problem is generally defined as a situation
initial with a purpose to achieve, which requires a subject to perform a series of actions or operations to accomplish
There is only talk of a problem, within a subject/situation context, where the solution is not available.
entry, but it is possible to build it6.
Types of problems
Not all problems are the same; we can generally identify three major types:
Those that allow the construction and meaningfulness of new mathematical resources;
Those that allow the reinvestment of knowledge in other contexts, favoring the reinterpretation.
including also those that allow controlling their acquisition; and finally,
Those we could call research, where the search is freer and a process is not known a priori.
standard resolution setting.
Roland Charnay points out a typology of problems, which expands on the previous one, characterized by the objectives of
learning that is pursued:
The problems aimed at involving students in the construction of new knowledge (often
called problem-situations;
The problems aimed at allowing students to use the knowledge already studied (often
called reinvestment problems)
The problems aimed at allowing students to expand the scope of use of a notion already is-
studied (sometimes referred to as transfer problems, with all the ambiguity of this word);
The most complex problems in which students must jointly use several categories of co-
knowledge (sometimes referred to as integration or synthesis problems);
The problems aimed at allowing the teacher and the students to know the state of knowledge.
evaluation problems;
The problems aimed at putting the student in a research situation and therefore developing competences.
more methodological trends (open problems)7.
The author points out the limitations of this typology; not all problems are represented in this classification.
action, but also the same problem, depending on the moment it is presented can belong to one or the other of
the categories.
A great challenge for teachers is to maintain a good balance in the presentation of the different types of pro-
problems and at the same time ensure, throughout the school years, the achievement of meaningful learning in mathematics.
To ensure certain relationships of the student with knowledge and to carry out a task as proposed,
It is necessary to select problematic situations with certain conditions. Regine Douady states some of
they
a) The statement makes sense in the student's field of knowledge.
b) The student must be able to consider what could be a response to the problem. This is independent of their level.
city to conceive a response strategy or the validation of a proposal.
c) Taking into account their knowledge, the student can initiate a resolution procedure. But the res-
The position is not obvious, this means that it cannot provide a complete answer without developing an argument.
mentoring that leads him to questions he cannot answer immediately.
d) The problem is rich, this means that the network of involved concepts is quite significant, but not
too much for the student to grasp its complexity, if not alone, at least in a team or within
of the team or of the class.

6
Brun, Jean, 1993, "The resolution of algorithmic problems: assessment and perspectives", in: MathEcole No. 141, 1990, Switzerland. Cited in ERMEL:
Digital Learning, CEI Hatier.
7
Charnay, Roland 1903. Problem: open, problem for search
 4

e) The problem is open due to the diversity of questions that the student can raise or due to the diversity of
strategies that can be put into action.
f) The knowledge that is desired to be achieved with learning is the scientific resource to respond effectively to
problem. In other words, it is a resource adapted to the situation.8.
The notions of complexity and openness are relative to the student. A problem is rich and open for a class if it
it is for most students (for example, for 80% of them). Furthermore, conditions c), d), and e) prevent
that the problem is broken down into too small questions. Let's look at an example of a problematic situation,
designed for 1st grade students:
The fish without fish tanks. At the beginning of 1st grade (in the month of April or May) with the general objective of presenting to the
students situations that allow them to become aware of the usefulness of numbers to solve certain situations
and the specific objectives of understanding and using the inherent conditions of different situations of
partition: is it necessary to distribute all the objects or not?, is it necessary to leave the least possible?, should everything be distributed?
What about each one?, etc., let's pose the following situation to the students:
They gave us 15 little fish, we need to buy fish tanks and put them in them however you want. But they are very delicate.
Fish cannot be in the same tank in groups of 5 or more, because they can hurt each other. Each team has to pen-
They're going to brainstorm and decide how they're going to present it, and when they're done, a teammate from each group will come up to share.
how they did it.
We can analyze in this situation the conditions that the problems must meet, as stated above.9.
This problem makes sense to children both in terms of understanding the situation presented and in
level of the requested knowledge, in this case the enumeration of the fish.
Everyone can start a resolution of the problem by resorting, for example, to the graphical representation of the situation.
However, respecting the condition of not placing 5 or more than 5 fish in each fishbowl will cause difficulties.
Some children (or groups) will only achieve the solution to the problem by assigning a fishbowl to each fish, while others will only...
mind after the presentation and discussion of their classmates' work.
It is in confrontation where personal or group strategies can be tested when presented and
discussed with their peers in the group. The students themselves can validate the different answers since
It will be verified whether the total number of fish involved was respected and if the condition of not placing was fulfilled.
In each fishbowl, neither 5 nor more than 5 fish.
According to the results obtained in the first presentation of the problem, the teacher presents a new situation with
another total number of fish and a different number of fish allowed per aquarium or it moves to the next situation:
We return to the problem of the fish; we want to buy the fish tanks, but not so many; we would like to try to buy the
minimum number of fish tanks possible because they are very expensive. Remember that there can be neither 5 nor more than 5 fish.
you are in the same fishbowl,
This situation presents the students with a new constraint that forces them to modify their previous response, making-
evolve in their primitive strategies.
Once again, the sharing of information is important to bring to light the compliance with the different restrictions.
(neither 5 nor more than 5 in each aquarium, the smallest number of aquariums, etc.), fine-tune if necessary, the use of
additive writings (according to the time of year) and list the different procedures used.
Finally, it is necessary both in this activity and in others, to take it up individually, not so that the do-
It can be known if he learned, otherwise to allow each student to reflect again on the situation and use
the contributions of the sharing of productions from the different teams.
The confrontation between the produced results and the answer to the question posed by the problem can generate
adjustments, questioning the method used and searching for another way. This necessary confrontation between
the partial or final results obtained by the student and the conditions of the problem is a learning objective
From the early grades: being able to evaluate the result of their actions.
When selecting situations designed for the different cycles, it is necessary to analyze and keep in mind the overall set.
broad range of different problems that such a concept allows to address. Let's look at the following, for example,
problems:
22 candies are to be distributed to 4 children, giving each one the largest possible number, how many candies does each get?
Do they touch each one?
There are 22 candies and 4 candies are given to each child, how many children can be served?
The 22 kg of meat bought for the camp are to be divided among 4 backpacks for transport.
How many kg should be placed in each one?

8
Douady, Regine, "Teaching Learning Report: Dialectics subject-object, the flow of frameworks", in: Didactic Notebook of Mathematics
question, No. 3, IREM, University Paris VII.
9
A similar analysis in another learning situation can be found in: "Children, Teachers, and Numbers" C. Parra and I. Saiz, Design
Curriculum, Municipality of the City of Buenos Aires, 1992.
 5

In the card game, the 22 cards must be dealt among the 4 players, giving everyone the same amount.
the largest number of possible cards, how many cards are left undistributed?
The four statements involve the operation 22 : 4, however, this is not evident to students who are trying
understand the meaning of division.
Each of the statements refers to different aspects of the same concept and cannot be posed as
my applications of the concept of division that I have already learned.
We can say that it is important to select different situations for students that relate to a mis-
my concept. Of course, some of them cannot be presented at the same school level. For example, the
Problem 3 cannot be presented simultaneously with Problem 1, as they correspond to different moments of
learning, at different grades or cycles of the basic education.
In addition, it is necessary to encourage students to establish connections between the different types of problems.
way to understand why they are resolved with the same operation.
6, Can one learn to solve problems? Didactic considerations
It is not necessary to review the results of the national 7th grade evaluation to understand the low performance of the
students in problem-solving. Teachers share concerns regarding the difficulties of
the students in the problem-solving activity, of course these results are not unrelated to the role that
it plays the role of problem-solving in learning for each teacher and the resources used to achieve it.
What do students think about problem-solving? Some research has been conducted on this topic and
their conclusions. The students think that:
a) In a problem, all the data must be used;
b) All problems have a unique solution;
c) There is always 'the good' way to solve it, which coincides with the correction made at the collective level;
Only the teacher can decide whether the resolution of a problem is right or not;
e) However, the teacher is also required to express an opinion on the validity of the procedure and the result.
These ideas are the ones that have been built through contact with the problems posed by the school and with a
particular didactic work that reinforces them. For example, the resolution of 'interesting' problems (not reduced
the application of the operation that has just been taught) does not appear in the early grades, considering that the
more complex problems can only be addressed once all simple competencies are mastered and by
the importance given to repetitive exercises. In addition, a predominance of activity is often found.
data that rely on simple observations (perceptual or manipulative) followed by a coding work
numerical cation to the detriment of real situations of anticipation.
The aforementioned is repetitive in the early grades, but also in others when they are introduced.
themes through the use of material: for example, fractions in middle grades, where activities are reduced-
this translates into numerical writings that are later confirmed with concrete material.
The selection of the problems that arise, where even young students have to confront.
relatively complex situations, the objectives set and the specific work carried out in the classroom,
Iran is shaping a different conception of what it means to solve a problem, of how, in sum, they perceive the students.
to mathematics, while awakening the desire to investigate, to develop their problem-solving capabilities and
trust in one's own resources.
6.1. Capabilities to be developed
The ERMEL team (Research team on the teaching of Mathematics) belongs to the National Institute
The Pedagogical Research Center of France points out a list of skills necessary for problem solving.
problems:
Knowing what is being sought, being able to represent and appropriate the situation;
Be able to concentrate for a sufficient amount of time and also to decenter, change your point of view;
Be able to mobilize at the right moment the previous knowledge and know-how;
Be able to keep track of their trials, to organize, to plan, to manage the information that
available, whether given or necessary to seek or build it;
Dare to act, to take risks, to make mistakes;
To be able to formulate, communicate your hypotheses, your certainties, your strategies;
Be able to control the state of your procedure, measure the distance that separates you from the solution;
Be able to validate, test, etc.
These knowledge or know-how do not appear overnight; a long learning process will sometimes be necessary.
global and sometimes also quite specific to one or another of the capabilities10.

10
INRP, 1986, "Learning to solve problems in elementary school", Research team on the teaching of mathematics
Ques, France.
 6

In order for a student to take ownership of a situation, it is necessary for them to: understand what the situation is that is presented to them.
to address, understand what is being sought, and initiate resolution procedures whose results can be
evaluated.
To achieve this, the presented situations can be simplified at first; for example, in the case of the
fish without aquariums, there is no restriction from the first situation to buy the least number of aquariums.
In addition, a collective discussion can be organized where the students clarify what they understood from the pre-
questions and the instructions of the situation. The teacher can then reformulate the conditions of the problem or
clarify the instructions, without leading the students to a resolution procedure.
The invention of problems is a good way to become aware of what a problem is, of what it
It must include the necessary relationship that must exist between the data and the questions.
Problems can be freely developed, with a special condition (on the context, on the operation,
about the material, etc.) or based on a given calculation.
A statement invented by the students can lead to different tasks: problem-solving by others,
analyze whether the data is possible or not, reformulation of the statement or question, formulation of other questions
tas, etc.
6.2. Construction of progressions
It is not enough to present students with sporadic problem-solving or to present one or two situations.
isolated to establish favorable conditions for learning.
It is necessary to construct progressions, sequences of situations that allow students to build pro-
progressive procedures, providing the opportunity to reuse or improve them in other situations.
The practice of a type of work, of a procedure, of a notion, must contribute to a 'decontextualization-
"tion" of knowledge, that is, a kind of autonomy from the contexts of origin.
We have seen a small sequence of problems to solve in 1st grade that aims at the construction of the notion
by number; let's now see a progression that allows us to develop certain methodological capabilities.
We have selected some problems from the 'Ñandú Olympics' related to the topic of counting.
When presenting them to 4th or 5th grade students, who are facing such situations for the first time, it can
one can observe the inability they demonstrate to conduct a systematic search for the numbers that verify the
proposed conditions.
For example, a first problem that may arise is the following:
When writing the 3-digit palindromic numbers, how many times is the digit 5 written?
Students use different procedures to write the numbers that meet the conditions of the problem:
three-digit numbers, palindromic and written with one or more 5s among their digits:
a) Escriben números capicúa de 3 cifras que incluyan la cifra 5, sin ninguna organización, 454, 575, etc.
b) Escriben los números siguiendo órdenes parciales: 151, 252, 353, 454, 555, 656, 757, 858, 959, 505,
515, 525, 535, 545, 565, 575, 585, 595.
c) They establish a total order: 151, 252, 353, 454, 505, 515, 525, 535, 545, 555, 565, 575, 585, 595, 656,
757, 858, 959.
The confrontation of the different procedures used, the discussion among the students about the amount of
found numbers, it allows us to build together a thorough search methodology for all the numbers
ros that verify the conditions of the problem.
It is necessary to reinvest your acquisitions and verify their effectiveness in similar situations, calling
a similar action to that which requires the student the same abilities and is not necessarily related to the same
topics. In our example, it is about presenting situations that require an analysis of the numbers that verify
certain conditions and the systematic search for numbers with certain conditions and not specifically working with
4-digit palindromic numbers instead of 3.
Therefore, a second problem arises:
How many even numbers between 1000 and 2000, whose sum of the 4 digits is less than 6, can be formed?
to write?
A prior analysis before writing the numbers that meet the conditions of the problem leads to discarding the
odd numbers and those that include any digit greater than 4. Therefore, the only remaining numbers
the following are:
1000 1002 1004 1200 1202
1010 1012 1210
1020 1022 1220
1030
1040
1100 1102 1300
1110 1112 1310
 7

1120
1130 1400
Finally, the third problem allows further progress, beginning to uncover the multiplicative structure of the
counting problems.
How many 5-digit palindromic numbers can be formed if 4 of their digits are the same and the other one is different?
different?
Problems of the same type, but more complex, that require working with divisibility criteria are the following.
test
How many common multiples of 4 and 6 are there between 10 and 238?
6.3. Management and organization of the class
As we said earlier, "doing mathematics" is also discussing the solutions provided by your peers.
to agree on those solutions and for that it is necessary to test, argue, discuss, verify and make it clear.
car, try to convince, get involved in the search for the truth of the claims made, do not accept the
of hearing a priori, etc.
And all of the above suggests a different relationship between students and knowledge, different roles from the traditional ones.
student and teacher relationships, both in the classroom and in the management of truth, attitudes, etc.
A different class organization is one of the aspects to be modified. To talk about a positive organization-
The class that ensures those objectives will present a situation raised by the IREM group of Lyon.
France, which is part of a series of activities aimed at gradually introducing students to the
deductive reasoning.
It is about allowing the appropriation of the rules of mathematical debate that the mentioned team states under the
next door11:
A mathematical statement is true or false;
A counterexample is enough to invalidate a statement;
In mathematics, to debate one must rely on a certain number of clearly defined properties or definitions.
statements on which there is an agreement (axioms);
In mathematics, giving examples that verify a statement is not enough to prove that it is true;
In mathematics, an observation about a drawing is not enough to prove a statement in geometry.
It is true.
And one of the first situations proposed for 7th or 8th grade students is the following:
In the expression x n - n + 11, if n is replaced by any natural whole number, it always results in a number.
What has exactly two divisors?
The objectives of this situation are the debate and institutionalization of two of the aforementioned rules:
A counterexample is sufficient to prove that a mathematical statement is false, and some examples, even if they are
Numerous examples are not enough to prove that a mathematical statement is true.
The class is organized following these steps:
1°) Reading the problem and initial attempts to solve it individually.
2°) Group resolution. This search culminates in the production of a poster that must present the result(s)
two or the ideas of the group and an explanation to convince others of the validity of their results.
3°) Group debate about the posters.
4°) Synthesis on the rules of the débale and/or on the insufficiency of certain evidence that has been highlighted.
CIA during the third moment.
The individual search initially allows each student to take ownership of the situation and begin a pro-
resolution procedure. When work is organized in groups, second moment, students have the possibility
The need to create a poster presenting the group's results.
It compels to understand the eventual divergences, seek the coincidences, and to formulate their solutions in writing.
The debate, the third moment of the class, constitutes a powerful moment in the process, as it involves confronting the
Responses elaborated by the different teams, discuss and decide on the validity of the statements.
The order of discussion of the posters is determined by the teacher based on what they want to be debated. Each group
must take note of what the 'author team' did based on what is written on the poster, which requires a
clear and precise formulation and writing, without a prior explanation from the issuing group.
And the debate takes place in the class, trying to validate or reject the arguments presented by the other teams.
The teacher, while presenting the situation, clarifies that it will not be him who determines the truthfulness or falsehood of the statements.
but it will be the class that decides based on its own arguments.

11
Arsae, O. Chapiron et al., 1992, Introduction to deductive reasoning in college, University Press of Lyon, IREM, France.
 8

Finally, at the moment of synthesis, the teacher highlights certain rules of mathematical debate and the in-
efficiency of certain pragmatic tests given by the students.
In the presented situation, the authors propose to carry out an individual task fourth moment consisting of: pen-
be in the solution that each of them would ultimately give to the stated problem and write it, commenting on the
first explanation given by your group.
As can be seen in this example, throughout the sequence, the students are faced with different situations.
An initial action: based on their prior knowledge, from their previous experiences, the students imagine.
What could be a possible solution to the problem and they are trying to produce it.tor at least, to start it.
Teamwork forces them to 'speak' to clarify their resolution ideas, but also to try to understand the
from his companions.
Drafting a poster, understandable for the whole class, requires an initial agreement based on the eventual...
initial divergences, but also a clear and precise formulation of what has been done, not just of the effective calculations.
but also of the meaning of each of them, the explanation of why they affirm what they affirm or deny
the statement.
In the confrontation between teams, they must seek arguments to convince others, be able to decentralize.
from their own research, questioning, appreciating the positive elements of different procedures, validating it
which is stated, evaluate the degree of generality of each one, etc.
At the moment of institutionalization, the procedures or knowledge used, constructed are identified.
or modified that come to constitute the socially established knowledge, named conventional-
mind, which become part of the evaluable knowledge of the students of that course.
Finally, in the final phase, the students face an individual recap work, of personal decision.
After the debate on the arguments and review of the first production of their team.
In the lower grades
The activity described in the previous paragraph corresponds to a possible task to be carried out with third-grade students.
Cycle, but with first grade students, the need to argue about it can also arise.
of the validity of a solution.
At the end of 2nd grade, a problem-solving activity is organized. 12These are problems that we could
to recognize as 'multiplication and addition'.
Each pair of students receives a list of 4 problems with the following instructions:
Classify the following problems according to whether they can be solved solely with addition or if it is possible to use...
make a multiplication. Each couple makes their decisions and subsequently confronts them with the other couple of their
team.
At the end of the work, the teacher requests the answers from each team, which she records in a double-entry table.
where the problems and the different teams are located.
In each box, the teacher places the answers of the teams: it is addition (S), multiplication (M), or
well, in the case where the two couples could not reach an agreement, a C is placed, which means: it will be
discussed in the confrontation (C).
Once the answers are located, the different teams discuss the classification made by their peers.
Sometimes it is necessary to also discuss the results, given that calculation errors still appear frequently.
especially in operations that involve quite large numbers.
The Cs of the table are presented to the entire class, which discusses and decides on the validity of the different proposals.
Some of the discussions arising from this work focus on the possibility of shorter or more
fast in the case of multiplication, but not for easier solutions, given that, for them, not yet having
Multiplicative results already available in memory, the sum continues to be easier to imagine and solve.
6.4 The role of the teacher
Throughout the work, the important role that the teacher must play in the approach has been outlined;
We sit. You must select, analyze, foresee, lead, encourage, institutionalize, etc.
A primary activity of the teacher is related to the content officially designated to be taught.
It is generally up to educational authorities to decide what content to teach at different levels.
It is the teacher's responsibility, however, to organize the internal content to be developed during
the year; it is also their responsibility to build or select each learning situation and its adaptation to
level, at the moment, to the characteristics of their class, etc. determine the different phases of the learning process and
foresee the procedures of the students, likely to appear before the situation presented. Finally, it organizes
temporary scheduling of activities and evaluations, that is, obtaining information about the status of cone-
foundations of the students.

12
This activity is part of a sequence on multiplication developed for 2nd grade by C. Parra and I. Saiz.
 9

In more specific terms, the teacher must assume different roles in their relationships with the students:
Help students carry out and improve their procedures; allow them to take ownership of the procedures
thoughts of their peers, leading them to reformulate them or to make them work by themselves.
Encourage them, ask them to act, to try, to take risks, help them to organize.
Reformulate the guidelines - the goals to achieve each time students lose their way.
-Underline the acquisitions, help to identify them, name them, even define them, relate them to other concepts.
terms. When the problem has been resolved, it is still necessary to highlight, with the students, the characteristics
important situations in such a way as to allow them to later recognize analogous situations.
Specify what is still needed to be acquired on a given topic and the resources that will be provided to achieve it.13.
The teacher should help students understand that they can individually decide the resolution of a
problems, the steps to follow, that they can try, make mistakes, - that they have enough time for it, that
they can search for different resources, work on their sheet without worrying about the presentation (there will be a time
specific for the presentation of resolutions), which can be erased, crossed out and started over.
The task of properly organizing the different activities to propose to your students, selecting problems
adequate and a classroom dynamic that provides them with the opportunity to think, use their own procedures, with posi-
abilities to interact with each other and with a proven evolution in the mathematical treatment of problems
Throughout schooling, without a doubt, it will ensure the achievement of the proposed objectives and will allow reversing pau-
latinly the treatment that this topic has in our schools, with a view to the so-called improvement of the
educational quality.

13
Ermel, 1971. Digital Learning and Problem Solving, CE I Hatier, France.