All pupils - able children included - need to be taught strategies to enable their thinking skills to progress. They also need help with developing different approaches to problem solving. A sustained piece of work that requires perseverance, logical strategies, and refinement of method and extension of the original task is not the same as a straightforward quick-fix type problem. Both types of problem solving need to be taught. This book presents a series of activities that can be used with whole classes to provide a curriculum for the teaching of problem solving and the development of thinking skills. Each tried and tested investigation is clearly explained with ideas on how to introduce the task to a class, full solutions and resource sheets.

Activities include prisoners: a fun way of generating square numbers; handshakes: exploring arithmetic progressions; T-shape: an activity to lead pupils from numerical calculations to algebraic generalizations; frogs: encouraging systematic working and listing; and opposite corners: an advanced piece of work for independent learners.

Elaine Sellars, Sue Lowndes

Introduction. 1. Prisoners. 2. Handshakes. 3. Worms. 4. T-shape. 5. Pond Borders. 6. Rotten Apples. 7. Pilot. 8. Painted Cube. 9. Frogs I. 10. Frogs II. 11. Opposite Corners.