Originally published in 1988, this volume is the product of one of four NCTM Research Agenda Project conferences held during 1987. The topics of teaching and evaluating problem solving are high interest topics for teachers, teacher educators, curriculum developers, and administrators. Since 1980, many educators as a result of in-service programs, changes in curriculum guidelines, and changes in textbooks, had come to accept the important role problem solving can play in the curriculum and were interested in ways of improving their instructional programs. Research related to problem solving over the previous ten years had focused almost exclusively on analyses and characterizations of problem-solving competence and performance. Very little research had been conducted on issues more closely concerned with teaching and assessing problem solving.
The major purposes of this monograph were to bring to the attention of researchers the need for coordinated and collaborative research efforts related to teaching and assessing problem solving and to hopefully influence the beliefs, methodologies, and perspectives that would be used in conceptualizing this research.
The papers here served as a start in building a research agenda for the teaching and assessment of mathematical problem solving. The hope was that the ideas presented here would lead to abundant research activities with results that ultimately influenced practice in the schools. Today it can be read in its historical context.