ABSTRACT
The learning of school mathematics has been widely recognized as an opportunity for students to learn about problem solving. In their policy statement, the first recommendation of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1980) is “that problem solving be the focus of school mathematics in the 1980’s” (p. 1). Similar policy recommendations have been made at the state level. For example, in California, a recent committee report on the California Assessment Program (1980) “recommended that time and effort be redirected from drill and practice on computation to the development of problem solving strategies. …[and] that problem solving analysis and modeling should be used as an umbrella in the general math curriculum” (p. 210).
