The Looking-back Step in Problem Solving

The prominence given to problem solving in An Agenda for Action (NCTM 1980) no doubt deserves much credit for the revitalized interest in problem solving in the curriculum. National and regional meetings of mathematics teachers have been featuring sessions on problem solving. Many elementary school text series are laying a problem-solving foundation with attention to a variety of heuristics. Soon we may no longer have to refer to the teaching of problem solving as our “lip-service objective” (Sowder 1972).