4.8 PROBLEM SOLVING METHOD

Real education is through life and for life. Education has been viewed as a problem living procedure to enable the individual to meet and solve the problems of real life. Therefore, real life situations in the form of problems are greated in the school, and the students are taught and trained to solve the same, so as to equip them better for life. Problem solving is a process of overcoming difficulties that appear to interfere with the attainment of a goal. It is, therefore, the most complex form of human behaviour, and is at the apex of human learning.

John Dewey viewed learning as Problem-Solving. He viewed life as a series of problems, which an individual has to solve to live a successful life. Hence, learning should revolve around problems that are according to the maturation level and experience background of the learner.

According to Rusk, "Problem-solving may be defined as planned attack upon a difficulty or perplexity for the purpose of finding satisfactory solution".

Ross says, "Problem solving is an educational device whereby the teacher and the pupils attempt in a conscious, planned, purposeful effort to arrive at an explanation solution to some educationally significant difficulty". According to Good's Dictionary of Education, Problem-solving is a manner of dealing with that which is problematic, a method involving clear definition of problem confronted formation of hypothetical solution, deliberate test of hypothesis until evidence warrants its acceptance".

Therefore, problem-solving is a method in which the felt difficulty to act in an educational situation is realized and then an attempt is made in a conscious, planned and purposeful way to find its solution.