Monday, March 14, 2011

Adventures in Pedagogy: Problem Solving

Dawson is playing a game on his DS and I plop down next to him and ask:

"Whatcha doin'?"

"Oh man, Dad, I'm on this level that took me forever to figure out."

"Really? So what do you do when you get to a level and you don't know what to do?"

"I experiment."

"What do you mean?"

"I try stuff and keep trying until something works."

"You mean you don't just sit there, throw your hands up and say, 'I don't know what to do, so I quit?'"

"Nope."


- Posted from my iPhone

3 comments:

Joss Ives said...

This truth is both :) and :( at the same time

untilnextstop said...

I think it's a skill that you continue to develop even as an adult. I've noticed that there are logic puzzles that I couldn't sit through during college that now seem clear as daylight when I sit down with a paper and pencil. Back in college I couldn't quite understand why people said that when you get a logic puzzle during an interview, they're not trying to test how smart you are but how systematic you are. Now, as a 29-year-old, I get it.

Simplifying Radicals said...

Sometimes my son will "throw" his, but then go pick it up a few seconds later and try again.
Amazing how they will work and work at something that interests them....
Now making the classroom that interesting is the important part.