WHY DO MOST STUDENTS FIND PROBLEM SOLVING DIFFICULT?

[ Image Source ]

Hello fellow steemians.👋

Are you in struggling moment because of life's problems or are you battling with mathematical problem solving? Whatever is your answer, I would like to share to you, my perspective in regards to the reasons why most of the students find problem solving difficult.

---

Problem solving is an integral part of Mathematics. Problem solving enhnaces our logical skills. However, there are a lot of students who encountered hard time in understanding word problems specially that most of them are not used to mathematics which deals with words. As early as 5 years old, they enter school with the concept of having Mathematics as a subject which deals with numbers wherein most of the students shun most of the time. One reason of this is the misconception of the people that surround them about the difficulty of the subject. It adds on the hellacious concept of mathematics as a subject . The difficulty will be even more if students are asked to solve word problems since students are not used to mathematics which deals with words because for them math only deals with numbers.

Is problem solving really difficult?

[Image Source]
Students will not be successful in Mathematics if they do not know the essential vocabulary words presented in the word problem thus unlocking of words in Mathematics is also necessary. If misunderstanding is not given attention it will cause misapplication of appropriate mathematical operation that a certain word problem asks to do.

Nevertheless, in answering problem solving, one should not restrict students to solve it in one procedural way because answer can be solve using variety of solutions. It is not enough for students to learn mathematics by merely solving tasks taht requires simple to complex computations or memorinzing concepts and formulas but rather it is through analyzing word problems and applying what they have learned is the key of making their logical abilities improved. Through problem solving their higher order thinking skills is exercised and developed.

Whatever reasons students have in mind about the difficulty in solving word problem, they must start to change their way of thinking to better understand the concept and apply mathematical skills in problem solving since it is an integral part of the subject and a required skill in life by general.

Understanding, Analyzing and Applying mathematical skills are on the most applicable strategies one should have to overcome the difficulty of the subject specifically the problem solving itself.

Thank you for reading and God bless.