Annotated Review

In her book Children Solving Problems, Stephanie Thornton argues that social interaction

is crucial for the development of children’s problem solving skills since “the child’s own

resources are not enough to achieve skilled, mature problem solving” (Thornton, p. 93).

Thornton describes how social factors can influence the development of problem solving skills

and offers insight on how parents and teachers can implement social interactions into problems.

She also provides evidence to supplement her argument based on the work of Piaget, Vygotsky,

Wood, and Bruner. In this paper, I will discuss Thornton’s ideas about problem solving in a

social context and elaborate upon the different factors that contribute to effective development of

problem solving skills. I will also discuss my own experiences with problem solving, and what I

hope to incorporate into my pedagogy in the future.

Thornton uses Piaget’s ideas as a basis for her argument that effective pairing is crucial to

the development of problem solving skills. She states that when two children are working

together to solve a problem, they each bring a different set of skills and beliefs with them.

Research shows that this allows children to challenge each other’s ideas, which in turn stretches

their knowledge and gives them the tools to develop new strategies. Piaget believed that this

conflict of perspectives is what sparks the development of a child’s skills (Thornton, p. 95).

However, Thornton does not believe it is the conflict of ideas that are critical for productive

collaboration. Rather, “it is the form of the interactions between the collaborators” (Thornton, p.

95). The most effective outcome of a pairing is when the two children bring different strategies

to a problem, but discover that neither is the best one. The disruption of the original strategies is

what forces them to work together to develop a more sophisticated strategy, and finish the

problem having learned a new skill. However, if students are not making decisions together, then

little is gained from working with one another (Thornton, p. 96).

 Thornton also draws upon the work of Vygotsky to provide suggestions as to how adults

can help facilitate the development of problem solving skills. Vygotsky believed that children

can only develop skills if they have adequate support from their environment. When a parent

helps a child, this stretches the child’s skills far enough to complete the task with help. However,

they do not yet possess the skills to complete the task without adult guidance (Thornton, p. 97).

Vygotsky calls this the ‘zone of proximal development,’ and Thornton believes that adults can

use this idea to create an effective problem solving environment (Thornton, p. 100). Vygotsky’s

ideas are similar to that of Bruner and Wood, who coined the term ‘scaffolding’ to explain that

children can learn many skills when completing a task with an adult. These skills reach far

beyond the scope of the task itself, and children may also learn adaptable skills such as

perseverance and self-reflection (Thornton, p. 99). Thornton suggests that parent support be

delivered in a specific way in order for scaffolding to be effective. Parents that use both verbal

instruction and demonstrations, along with tailored instruction that is specific to the child’s needs

are most effective in guiding the development of problem solving skills (Thornton, p. 102). It is

also noted that an adult and child share the process of decision making when solving a problem,

so children will learn more from an adult pairing than a peer partner (Thornton, p. 104).

According to Thornton, it is also important to consider the kind of skills being taught to

children and the environment in which they are taught. It is easiest to teach concrete skills for

problems that children face every day, because they can apply the skills used to solve a previous

problem when faced with something similar. On the other hand, it is hardest to teach skills that

require the application of abstract concepts. Although it may be difficult to teach these skills,

abstract concepts are what students are expected to learn in a school setting (Thornton, p. 105).

Furthermore, it is much easier to teach children skills that have a meaningful purpose behind

them. Purpose motivates children to solve problems, since they must recognize the purpose of a

task before recognizing what skills to use. If a problem does not have a clear purpose, it will be
difficult for the child to retrieve skills necessary to solve it (Thornton, p. 105). Therefore,

Thornton suggests that teachers incorporate problems with meaning in order to optimize skill

development. Thornton also discusses how a child’s environment can impact the development of

skills. Physically, a child who does not have a space where they can explore, such as a large

backyard, may not have the opportunity to practice certain problem solving skills (Thornton, p.

116). Aside from a child’s physical environment, adults also control the problems that a child is

exposed to, and this may differ for each child due to factors such as culture. With this in mind,

Thornton is suggesting that adults be mindful of the environments that they create for children.

This is a critical component of a child’s development, as the problems that a child is exposed to

are directly related to the pace at which they will develop (Thornton, p. 117).

As a learner, I have had many experiences with the ideas discussed by Thornton in her

book, specifically in math class. My calculus teacher would often have us work in partners to

complete a problem set, and I found that it became very difficult to overcome adverse problems

with my partner because we both would be stuck in our own mindset of how the problem should

be solved. This is related to Thornton’s notion that partners are not effective unless decision

making is shared. Furthermore, the math concepts I remember most vividly are those that I use

often and have a clear meaning, such as basic operations, geometry, and percentages. Concepts

that had no purpose to me, especially in calculus, were very difficult to grasp and I do not

remember how to complete certain calculus problems anymore. This experience aligns with

Thornton’s view that purpose facilitates the development of problem solving skills.

Thornton’s book argues that social interaction is a crucial factor in the development of

children’s problem solving skills, and adults can aid in this development through effective

instruction and support. The ideas presented in this book provide many implications for current

and future elementary school teachers. For example, it is important to create an environment that

facilitates effective problem solving. Teachers can do this by pairing students properly, and
monitoring each pair to ensure that the students are stretching their knowledge by working

together. This environment can also be achieved through effective instruction and scaffolding.

As stated by Thornton, it is important for teachers to provide verbal instruction and

demonstrations while also tailoring their scaffolding to meet the needs of the students. As a

future teacher, this is something that I hope to accomplish in my classroom because effective

scaffolding can aid in the development of a child’s problem solving skills. For example, when

working in a third grade classroom this past spring, I led a lesson on perimeter and area through

the construction of paper robots. I made sure to both verbally instruct and demonstrate how to

measure and cut the pieces of the robot, so that students would be able to complete a similar task

on their own. This technique is something I should continue to use in my future classroom,

according to Thornton. Finally, it is crucial for teachers to understand that purpose motivates

problem solving. When students do not have a clear purpose to a problem, it is very difficult to

gain new skills. Therefore, teachers must acknowledge this and provide extra support when

working to development of abstract concepts.The ideas discussed and suggestions presented in

Thorton’s writing are a great resource for adults to use when thinking about how to help children

fully develop problem solving skills.