False! Mathematical problem-solving skills can be learnt by all those who are courageous enough to break the psychological barriers that may possibly imprison them.

Learning such skills involves critical thinking and is based on gaining a deep understanding of the concepts involved, promoting thinking beyond the boundaries that are usually only self-imposed and benefitting from interaction with others. It is not a mean feat!

If problem-solving skills are complex to learn, they are even more so to teach. From a teacher’s perspective, the problems presented need to be challenging but not too difficult, stimulating but accessible, or in technical words, problems need to be within the students’ ‘zone of proximal development’ (Vygotsky, 1968). The students need to get stuck at some point, because the process of getting unstuck is key.

Learning takes place by answering the “what if …?” questions: what if a different approach is taken, or another tool is used, or an alternative strategy is employed, or another answer is plausible. Teachers must help students move across Pólya’s phases in an interactive and non-linear process.

The solution to a problem is not the most important aspect of problem- solving but it is the process of getting to a solution which is paramount. Accepting this concept is usually the first and toughest hurdle one has to overcome in becoming a mathematical problem- solver.