Supporting Children’s Problem-Solving Skills in Project Approach Work: What is the Teacher’s Role?

As a project progresses, one challenge that teachers face is knowing how much to get involved. When and how do we offer support or guidance, and when do we step back and help children as they wonder and problem solve?  In Project Approach work, the children drive the topic, ask the questions, and direct the investigations, but the teacher has a role, too.  The teacher provides enriching opportunities, gathers meaningful resources, and organizes the learning data.  She creates plans and embeds curricular objectives.  She has to observe the children and their interests closely and know when to add more or pivot direction.  

Consider the following scenario… 

At the beginning of a project about clothing, a small group of children show an interest in laundry play and quickly realize they do not have a washing machine in their dramatic play area.  They discuss washing clothes and play out some of their ideas using the sink and oven.  The teacher realizes she has an opportunity to react and has a few options. She can do one of the following:

• ignore the dilemma and let the children continue to pretend and ponder
• supply the children with a child sized play washer/dryer to solve the problem
• encourage the children through a discussion of their ideas and engage them in research, problem solving, and creation of a washing machine

As the teacher ponders these options, she can reflect on some important questions relevant to project work, such as:

• Do teachers need to immediately solve the children’s dramatic play scene dilemmas or problems?
• What if we left the dramatic play question unresolved and waited and watched?  
• How do we best support true inquiry and problem solving? 
• What do children need from supporting adults in resolving their questions and dilemmas? 

In the laundry dramatic play scenario, there is a great opportunity in helping the children consider and address their problem.  

The teacher responds to the children’s curiosity by listening to their ideas and recording their questions on a chart to reference over time.  They vote to create their own washing machine, and she provides books, manuals, and photographs of washing machines for children to explore.  As they learn more, the teacher leads the children to dictate their growing knowledge on a graphic organizer called a web.  

To further fuel excitement on the topic, they watch videos together and she plans for a repair technician to visit to explain how a washer works.  She then stocks the art area with recycled materials, loose parts, and other open-ended materials.  The teacher encourages the creation of plans to make a washer and helps the children reference pictures as they draw and write them.  They diagram and create a list of washing machine parts to include in their creation.  She documents questions and comments and notes the unspoken interests of students with limited verbal skills. For example, she documents that one child stirs the clothes around in the sink to indicate he knows that it is supposed to spin. 

The children begin to use new vocabulary to explain what the washing machine is doing and why, and the teacher creates a working word wall for children to reference in their work. It includes words like lid, tub, cycle, spin, and laundry.  Their work extends for several weeks, and time is built into the day to support the project.  The teacher makes a task list of jobs for the children to help organize their construction.  They work together to build a washing machine from a cardboard box, using recycled and crafting materials provided to create dials, buttons, and handles.  As the construction of the washing machine continues, several ideas come up to make the washing machine spin like a real one.  Eventually, the children place the sit and spin toy inside their cardboard washing machine and are satisfied with their results. It spins. 

In Project Approach work, we use these natural, real-time opportunities to respond to the children’s challenges and facilitate their process of problem solving. A big facilitating role of the teacher during the information gathering Phase 2 and the conclusive Phase 3 is to provide just enough information and materials at a time to keep the interest high and the project progressing.  These are also great opportunities to weave in and practice developmental skills and curricular and individualized objectives.  In addition to the higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills children will utilize, they will also certainly use their motor, math, and writing skills to create a new washing machine!  It can be tempting to just give children the answers or provide things to meet their needs.  However, when we slow down to encourage and support the children’s inquiry, we build investigation skills, problem solving, and creativity.