Problem Solving skills – A new approach By Vineeta Roberts
In a world marred by bizarre competition, compulsive expectation and confounded ambitions; students are now caught in what can be called a ‘world wide web’ of impossibilities. Education is fast becoming a business for the intellectually bankrupt, politically incorrect yet publicly accepted necessity. Competitive exams are no longer a bridge to point the glorious few to their dream careers. Rather, it is a sword fringed on the anvil of expectations by unscrupulous parents with little or no knowledge of the plight their kids undergo. Perilous though the journey is, there is no passable outcome on the ‘Rights’ or ‘Wrongs’ of making decisions. The system is intellectually feudal and morally incompetent to cater to the grand design. Performance is not a mere expectation but a dictatorial debut for any student who has anything remotely adjunct to ‘ambition’. It is no misnomer then that many take adverse steps to outshine the competition; and an unfortunate few that stray from the road when failure is inevitable. The solution is ‘Problem Solving’ for the new age. Any seasoned computer limbo would acknowledge that there is a workflow to mitigate any eventual outcome. This is termed as the ‘Life Cycle’ of a problem. Those well versed with the art of problem solving swear to abide by the pen and paper approach to design a ‘workflow’ to better break it into constituents, to be analysed and interpreted at a microscopic layer. Finally, the bits and pieces of data can be computed bottom up to form an abstract solution; trimmed to suit the possible outcome by using an elimination process. The final solution is passable, easily interpreted and fail-safe. Is it difficult…? NO! Can this be taught to young students …. YES!!!
The Solution Students well versed with the Hindi equivalent of ‘FATCA’ would be in jitters but that is not the literal intent. It is an acronym for Formulation, Assembly, Testing and Evaluation, Corrective Action and Acceptance – the five pillars of problem solving. This inverted pyramid approach is a fast, simple, elimination process to break complex problems into smaller components and scale a solution from scratch, all with a pen and paper handy! For the sake of understanding the approach, let us take a simple problem. A mother takes her 11 yr old daughter to the ATM for the first time. The objective is to withdraw money from the ATM using a debit card. However; the mother would like to give her daughter a first-hand experience of the process. She has already fed her daughter with the verbal interpretation of what needs to be done – Go inside, press the buttons that read ‘X,Y,Z’; type a certain key, input a number (make that small since it’s my savings, not dad’s!!!); withdraw the money, stuff it inside your pocket and walk out innocently as if you were out for a stroll! By the time the kid has walked into the ATM, she is already in doldrums on what comes next, fumbles with the instructions, is met with failure and stomps out furiously complaining that the machine is indeed dumb!!!! Time to try our solution…!!!
Step 1: Formulation – The mother takes a pen and paper at home and draws a simple chart that may look like this Walk to the ATM When prompted for language, select English (wait for the next screen) Choose Savings and wait for the next screen Click ‘withdraw cash’ Type ‘1000’ on the next screen Type the 4digit PIN Wait for the cash Collect the money Exit the ATM
Step 2: Assembly – Next, she ensures that the kid has understood the process and that she is able to reiterate this workflow on pen and paper in her own words. The kid manages to read and understand as much as she could and compiles her chart; as follows Walk to the ATM Type the PIN Type the amount Take the cash Rush outside!
Step 3: Testing and Evaluation – The mother now lays both the sheets side-by-side and allows her daughter to compare the differences. At this stage, the kid is half aware of the workflow but needs some compulsive action to be performed on her end to fill in the gaps. She re-reads the comparison to understand and memorize the steps once more and then agrees to jot it down again.
Step 4: Corrective Action – This is a modified version of the workflow once the kid has attempted to write it again; Walk into the ATM Select English Choose Savings Type 1000, followed by a 4digit PIN Accept the money and then walk out
Step 5: Acceptance – Looks neat!? Yes, it does! The kid is now prepared with the possible outcome to the problem without ever actually having to go through it multiple times. This ‘Sandboxed’ method has cut short the effort that would have been needed from both her mother and herself at the ATM, not to mention the angry expressions and mutterings of the queue outside! The above example is a simple overlay of using this approach in a proactive manner. There are ‘n’ possibilities of expanding this solution to overlap practical complexities; be it career decisions, choosing the right subjects in high school, getting a hold of competitive examinations, etc. In the end, it is not about the approach but the solution that matters. Hope this helps!!