Polya’s Problem-Solving Cycle

The Teaching and Learning Group

Polya’s Problem-Solving Cycle
Understand
the Problem

How to
Look Back
Approach Devise a Plan
Problem
Solving

Carry Out the

Plan
Understanding the Problem
 The obvious first step, but often not done. Understand
the Problem

How to
Approach Devise a
Look Back

Ask students questions such as:

Problem Plan
 Solving

 Do you understand all the words used in the problem? Carry Out
the Plan
 What are you being asked to do/show/find out?
 Can you put the problem into your own words?
 Can you draw a diagram/picture that would explain what you
have to do?
 Is there enough information to enable you to find a solution?
 What do we know already, and what do we need to find out?
Devising a Plan
There are many ways to approach solving a
Understand
 the Problem

problem How to
Approach Devise a
Look Back

Below is a list of just some of them

Problem Plan
 Solving

 You may need to help the students identify a Carry Out

the Plan

suitable approach
 Guess and check
 Look for a pattern
 Make an orderly list
 Draw a picture
 Eliminate possibilities
 Solve a simpler problem
 Use symmetry
 Use a model
 Consider special cases
 Work backwards
 Use direct reasoning
 Use a formula
 Solve an equation
 Be ingenious
Carrying Out the Plan
 This is too often where students start! Understand
the Problem

How to
Approach Devise a
Look Back

Students need persistence and patience (and

Problem Plan
 Solving

perhaps encouragement) Carry Out

the Plan

 All the while the students should be keeping the

next step in the cycle at the back of their minds
Look Back
Understand
the Problem

 Key questions to ask here include: How to

Approach Devise a
 Is the plan working? Look Back
Problem
Solving
Plan

 If not, go back round the cycle and develop a new plan

 Students too often keep going with things that clearly aren’t working Carry Out
the Plan

 Does the solution make sense?

 What worked and what didn’t?

 Have a solved the problem successfully?
 What have I learnt?
 These questions are critical to helping students solve future problems
For example…
 Solving a complex mathematical problem
 Polya was a mathematician!

 The extended essay!

 Science investigations

 Fulfilling a design-brief

 Writing an essay
Over to you….

 Would this work in your subject?

 What might it look like in your subject?

References and Further Reading
 ‘How to Solve It’, George Polya, 1945

 ‘Polya’s Problem Solving Techniques,

http://math.berkeley.edu/~gmelvin/math110sp14/polya.pdf

 Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Solve_It