Puzzle-based learning

Last time I wrote about making science and maths popular and I asserted that the best way to make a subject attractive to students is to make it fun. Of all the skills that students need to master, arguably learning to solve problems is the most important. So how to make problem solving fun? The answer may lie in puzzles.

Zbigniew and Matthew Michalewicz have published an excellent book entitled “Puzzle-based learning: An introduction to critical thinking, mathematics, and problem-solving.” Their idea is simple yet powerful: increase a student's mathematical awareness and problem solving skills by discussing and solving a variety of puzzles.
Disclaimer: I have nothing to gain financially from the publication of this book, although I did volunteer to write the foreword.

Allow me to quote myself:

Google is a company that is renowned for its love of puzzles. We solve puzzles to relax, we subject interview candidates to them, and we even run puzzle competitions. “Googlers” are not alone as people around the world have been fascinated by puzzles for thousands for years.

Solving puzzles is more that mental aerobics though. Like philosophers and mathematicians before them, Zbigniew and Matthew Michalewicz have recognized the pedagogical power that lies in solving puzzles. This book is chock-a-block with interesting puzzles and their solutions, lavishly and wittingly explained. Any reader with a basic knowledge of mathematics plus an ounce of curiosity will find this book enjoyable to read. But the Michalewiczs go further in presenting the problem-solving strategies and principles underlying puzzle solving, and in doing demonstrate the power of puzzle-based learning; that learning problem solving can be fun!

In doing so they have given us a tremendous book about problem solving that is both educational and entertaining at the same time, and one that I hope will be incorporated into problem-solving curricula around the world.

There is nothing new about solving puzzles. People have enjoyed them for centuries because of the joy that comes with finding a solution. This New York Times article relates how ancient Egyptians used mathematical puzzles 3,600 years ago to calculate everything from the slopes of pyramids to beer quantities.

While the Michalewicz's book is aimed at the first-year university level, high school students are likely to find it very enjoyable too. I look forward to seeing puzzle-based learning concepts incorporated not just into high-school curricula, but primary-school curricula as well.