The Effect of Using an Explicit General Problem Solving Teaching Approach on Elementary Pre-Service Teachers’ Ability to Solve Heat Transfer Problems

This study investigate the effectiveness of adding an ‘explicit general problem solving teaching strategy’
(EGPS) to guided inquiry (GI) on pre-service elementary school teachers’ ability to solve heat transfer
problems. The pre-service elementary teachers in this study were enrolled in two sections of a chemistry course
for pre-service elementary teachers’ at a four year university. One section of this class was taught a treatment
method, the explicit general problem solving approach, while the other section was taught using guided inquiry
approach. Quantitative data was obtained using a post-test while qualitative data was obtained probing
questions. The scores for the two teaching approaches showed no significant difference. Further, qualitative data
indicated little difference in the way participants solved their problems regardless of instructional approach.
Hence, this study concludes that both EGPS and guided inquiry have comparable effectiveness of teaching
problem solving.