The+wicked+problem+of+teaching+a+math+lesson

=Overview= > Rittel & Webber (1973), believed that, "social problems are never solved. At best they are only re-solved-over and over again." (p. 160)

I believe that teaching is a "**wicked problem**" and when a teacher is asked to add technology to their instruction, the “wickedness of the problem” increases because the instruction now involves three interrelating bodies of knowledge: content, pedagogy, and technology (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) instead of just content and pedagogy. As teachers try to solve the problem of teaching all learners in a complex social system (like a classroom), their solution depends on their ability to understand the problem, which in turn, requires that they have a number of possible solutions to the problem they are trying to understand. According to Rittel et al. (1973), “wicked problems”: > 1. are unique planning problems ; > 2. can not be understood unless solutions are determined ; >> a. produce solutions… > 3. that will generate waves of consequences over an extended period of time; > 4. that count significantly, there are no trial runs ; > 5. that might not be as good as the next solution someone tries; > 6. that might cause new problems > 7. do not produce an exhaustible number of solutions

Is teaching a social problem? And if it is, is it a wicked problem? Add your thoughts to the Voicethread below. > 1.

media type="custom" key="28115153" align="center"