From: utzoo!decvax!duke!harpo!seismo!rocheste!sher
Newsgroups: net.followup
Title: Re: "Problem-Solving" Courses - (nf)
Article-I.D.: rocheste.190
Posted: Mon Nov  8 01:52:58 1982
Received: Tue Nov  9 01:52:34 1982
References: uiucdcs.965

Do we really understand problem solving well enough to give a course in
it?  I realize that it is an important skill but just what is it? I
found logical problems such as those in the GRE rather difficult in
ways that do not seem relevant to most real problem solving situations.
[ I refer to problems of the form If you have five people named ... and
two boats and one truck and a helicopter ... and Susan must be
separated from Jim because of what they did last time ... can they all
fit?]  Trying to cause children to be experts in this kind of problem
solving seems to me to be irrelevant to any real life objective.  Also
I thought I was being taught how to solve problems when I went through
school (I learned how to avoid the guards, how to walk through the
halls without a pass and many other things that can be generalized to
real life situations (since when is school not real life?  you can get
robbed, you get and lose credit, you fight with your peers ...)) Of
course classes were places where one learned various exotic facts that
may come in useful somewhere.

Generally confused but perhaps willing to give my real name
David Sher