What is the Problem-Solving Method of Teaching?

Tamzin Adams

January 28, 2025

5 min read

They say the best way to learn is by doing, and that is precisely what the problem- solving method of teaching is based upon. Throwing students into real-life challenges or problems, and encouraging them to use their knowledge and creativity to find solutions, is a fantastic way to promote critical thinking and allows students to take ownership over their own learning.

In this article, we will explore what the problem-solving method of teaching is, cover some of its benefits for learning, and provide steps, tips, and examples of how to implement problem-solving in your classroom.

What is the Problem-Solving Method?

The problem-solving method in teaching is a learner-centred approach that encourages students to apply critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity to solve challenges. It focuses on developing students’ ability to identify problems, explore potential solutions, and apply their knowledge in a range of scenarios. This method aims to encourage independent thinking and deepen understanding of topics to make it more achievable to apply them to a real-world situation.

Teacher in classroom using the problem solving method

Unlike traditional teaching methods, which often emphasise memorisation and repetition via direct instruction, problem-solving is more interactive and collaborative. Teachers provide problems that allow students to actively engage with the content, work with other pupils, and use critical thinking to find solutions. This process helps students connect their knowledge to practical situations, creating a deeper and more applicable learning experience.

The teacher’s role is to act as a facilitator, offering support without giving away the steps to solve the problem. This encourages students to play an active role in their own learning, build confidence, and learn how to overcome challenges.

Overall, problem solving is a highly effective method of teaching. To learn how to ensure your teaching is at its best, read our article on What is Effective Teaching?

How Does Problem Solving Differ From Other Teaching Methods?

The problem-solving method of teaching differs from other educational strategies in a few important ways:

Student-centred vs teacher-led: Firstly, problem solving is a student-centred form of learning and therefore differs from more traditional teacher-led strategies such as direct instruction and assessment as it places the learning process on the students, who are only guided by the teacher when needed.
Learning by discovery vs rote learning: Problem solving allows students to make inquiries and delve deeper into topics, encouraging them to connect concepts and analyse their findings, rather than simply learning by memorisation and repetition as in rote learning.
Emphasis on process vs outcome: Problem solving encourages learning through the process of critical thinking rather than simply arriving at a correct answer and reaching the right result.
Collaborative vs individual: Students often work as a team when problem solving which allows them to learn from one another, rather than other teaching methods which focus on independent work and individual achievement.
Real-world vs abstract application: In problem solving, tasks are often based on real-life challenges which makes learning practical and applicable, whereas traditional teaching methods focus more on theoretical understanding.

You can find examples of other educational strategies to implement in the classroom in our guide on 8 Teaching Methods to Use in the Classroom.

How does the problem-solving method differ from problem-based learning (PBL)? Problem solving in teaching focuses on applying existing knowledge to structured problems within the school curriculum. In contrast, PBL uses open-ended, real-world problems to promote self-directed, multi-subject learning.

Problem-Solving Method Advantages

Problem solving in the classroom has a myriad of benefits for students, helping to vastly increase valuable skills for education and their life beyond school. But what’s more, problem solving is a fun way for students to learn as they can enjoy the challenge of tackling an issue and feel a sense of accomplishment when they succeed in solving it.

2 children solving a maths problem on a chalkboard

Here are a few of the many advantages of problem solving for your pupils:

Promotes Thinking

Problem solving is a highly effective method of improving students’ thinking processes as it exposes them to a variety of different thinking strategies, including critical, creative and logical thinking, that are valuable for solving problems both within school and in the real world. These methods of thinking will help them to solve issues more effectively as well as encouraging them to consider and improve their working processes depending on their success or failure at certain challenges.

Builds Confidence

Introducing problem solving into your teaching will naturally allow students to frequently overcome challenges, which can strengthen their confidence as they experience success. The more a pupil masters problems they’re faced with, the more they’ll feel able to share their ideas without fear of failure or embarrassment. Ultimately, this builds self-esteem and allows students to express themselves more freely.

Encourages Collaboration

Problem solving can easily be made into a group activity but even when engaging in problem solving independently, students are more likely to ask their peers for help or share ideas. As a result, problem solving promotes communication in the classroom and increases the sharing of varied opinions and approaches. In turn, this introduces pupils to a wider array of viewpoints and thus broadens their perspective.

Forms Creativity

Not only does problem solving foster critical and logical thinking, it also promotes creativity. Students have to use their imagination to ideate on an array of possible solutions to one problem using brainstorming, writing, and other activities that use the creative areas of the brain. Learning to form new ideas by seeing a problem from all different perspectives is, at its root, a creative challenge and one that is extremely useful for pupils.

Creates Resilience

The nature of trying to solve a problem will inevitably involve some failure and the need to try multiple methods before eventually succeeding in finding an effective solution. Therefore, problem solving helps to build perseverance and results in students becoming stronger and more adaptable individuals – core skills that will be highly beneficial in the real-world.

Promotes Active Learning

Active learning encourages students to fully engage in their education rather than passively intaking information. Problem solving is a highly effective method of promoting active learning as it is highly student-centred and thus requires learners to think hard about information to build their understanding of it, thus improving retention and their ability to apply the knowledge.

To learn more about engaging students in their own learning, read our article on What is Active Learning?

Problem-Solving Method Steps

There are a few different stages to problem solving in teaching, and each one is important to ensure your students get the most out of this educational strategy and reap its benefits. We’ve broken problem solving down into 5 easy-to-follow steps to help you implement this method in your classroom effectively:

1. Identify and Present the Problem

The first step is to make the nature of the problem clear to learners so that they can begin forming a solution. The problem must be well defined so that students fully understand what they are trying to achieve. Ensuring the problem is relevant to the pupil’s learning objectives is crucial, as well as encouraging learners to see the challenge as an interesting puzzle rather than a daunting task.

2. Guide Students to Understand and Analyse the Problem

Once the students have been introduced to the problem, they should take time to break it down and determine what they already know and what information they’re missing. This then presents the opportunity to gather as much information as they can that’s relevant to the problem, whether through books, videos, or educational trips, so that they can form a solid foundation of knowledge to move forward in the problem-solving process.

3. Facilitate Brainstorming of Possible Solutions

After obtaining a deeper understanding of the problem, students can then discuss what they’ve learnt and brainstorm approaches to the problem by building on each other’s thoughts. As a teacher, you can facilitate this discussion, encouraging them to think outside of the box and generate a wide array of ideas until they arrive at one or more viable solutions.

4. Encourage Testing the Solutions

If possible, learners should have the chance to test their solutions and determine whether they accurately solve the problem they were given. Some ways of testing include experiments, prototypes and simulations, such as building a model to test its functionality. This stage allows students to apply their knowledge in practice, offering them a valuable insight into the real-world viability of their ideas.

5. Reflect, Discuss and Give Feedback

The final stage is for students to talk about what worked and what didn’t, determining what could be improved next time. Reflecting on their process gives pupils the opportunity to evaluate not just their final solution but also the steps they took to get there. You can introduce both peer feedback and teacher guidance to offer constructive criticism, helping students to learn from their mistakes and better prepare them for future problem solving.

Problem-Solving Method Examples

Whilst the benefits of using problem solving in teaching may be clear, it can understandably be hard to think of inspiration for potential challenges to provide your students with. To help, here are four examples of how the problem-solving method can be applied in different subjects:

Science: Designing a Water Filtration System

In this example, teachers can pose the problem of cleaning water using household materials. Students will have to learn and discuss the science of filtration and the properties of different materials before deciding which materials to use and brainstorming filtration designs. Pupils will have the opportunity to build their own filtration systems then test them to see which works best before evaluating their strengths and weaknesses to find potential improvements.

Geography: Planning a Sustainable City

A problem solving case in geography could revolve around designing a city that addresses issues such as waste management, public transport, and energy use. Students will have to learn about the environmental issues cities face and sustainable alternatives before coming up with their own solutions and modelling their city using drawings, diagrams, or computer software. Afterwards, the class can discuss what would work in practice or if there would be any implementation challenges.

History: Reversing the Decline of an Ancient Civilisation

For this challenge, students can explore the causes behind the decline of an ancient civilisation, such as the Roman Empire, examining various sources to determine possible causes of their decline (e.g. political instability, economic trouble) and what could have been done to prevent these issues and maintain strength in the civilisation. Pupils could also discuss how these problems relate to other historical events and what we can learn from them in the modern day.

Maths: Solving Real-World Budgeting Issues

There are unlimited issues that could be used for this task, but one example would be to determine the cost of building a fence around a park. Students must determine the length of fence needed and how much it will cost based on the price per metre of fencing material. They can brainstorm various methods of finding these calculations, trying to find the quickest and most effective one, before presenting their calculations to the class and discussing how their methods could be applied to other real-world situations.

Tips for Implementing the Problem-Solving Method in Your Classroom

Using the problem-solving method in the classroom can be extremely rewarding given all the benefits it provides students. However, like most teaching strategies, it has a few challenges that you may come up against. By addressing these common obstacles and using our expert tips below, you can implement problem solving in your teaching smoothly and effectively.

Clearly Define the Problem: Ensure students fully understand the problem they need to solve before they begin working on it, and use real-world examples to help them connect its relevance to their own lives.
Scaffold Learning: Provide the most guidance at the start, then gradually reduce your support to encourage independent thinking as students gain confidence. You can learn more about this technique in our Teacher’s Guide to Scaffolding in Education.
Encourage Collaboration: Foster teamwork by setting clear roles and providing opportunities for group discussion, thus helping students build up their problem-solving skills through collaborative work.
Incorporate Varied Resources: Offer access to books, videos, lectures, and practical experiences amongst other resource types to help students gather a wide range of information and become adept at seeking out knowledge in a variety of places.
Balance Structure and Flexibility: Maintain clear goals and timelines to offer a guide for pupils to follow, but be wary not to make the process too rigid, allowing creativity in their approaches to problem solving.
Promote Critical Thinking: Ask open-ended questions that challenge students to think beyond surface-level answers and explore different perspectives.
Encourage Reflection: Lead regular discussions on what worked and what didn’t to help students learn from the process, apply their skills to the real-world and improve.

Students solving a problem in the classroom

Overcoming Common Challenges in the Problem-Solving Method

Student Frustration: Problem solving tasks can seem daunting to pupils at first so it’s important to give regular encouragement and break problems into smaller, more manageable tasks to prevent students from getting overwhelmed.
Limited Resources: Although problem solving often requires gathering information from a wide array of sources, it is possible to use low-cost or virtual solutions and encourage resourcefulness to overcome material constraints.
Dominance in Group Work: Some students are naturally more vocal than others. To prevent quieter students from getting less out of the task, assign rotating roles to ensure every student contributes and benefits from collaboration.
Lack of Time: A common misconception is that problem solving tasks take up too much of the academic day, but this can be prevented. Focus on quality over quantity by selecting fewer, more impactful problem solving tasks to implement in your lesson plans.
Assessment Difficulties: Develop clear measures of success that assess not only the final solution but also the process involved to get there, including teamwork, creativity, and innovation.

Problem solving can be a highly effective and beneficial method of teaching that enables students who learn in different ways to all get something out of the task and apply their knowledge to situations that are relevant to their world outside of the classroom. Incorporating problem solving into your curriculum will help to produce students who are more confident, creative, resilient, and collaborative individuals. Thus, it’s well worth using the problem-solving method in your teaching.