CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD PROBLEM

A good educational problem should have the following characteristics:

• It should be a real problem, taken from real life.
• It should be an educationally significant problem.
• It should arise out of the needs of the students, so that they may feel that it is their own problem which they have to solve.
• It should be according to the ment of the pupils.
• It should be thought provoking i.e., it must stimulate thinking and reasoning on the part of the students.
• The students must possess some background of the problems which they are going to solve.
• The problem should be possible of solution.
• The material required for the solution of the problemshould be available to the students.
• The problem should be clear to the pupil.
• The problem selected for solution must have practical value.

Yokam and Simpson say, "A good problem for teaching purposes is clear, definite, interesting, thought provoking, understandable, suitable and of practical value".