Thinking Skills: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

86 Unit 3 Problem solving: basic skills

Selecting and using

information

3.3

In one very simple form, problem solving

involves understanding and making use of

information. In the examples considered in

this chapter, the problem to solve is to select

the correct pieces of information and to use

them in an appropriate manner.

Information can come in a great variety of

forms and, if you want to be good at using it,

you will need to practise extracting data from a

range of sources.

Here are some forms that sets of

information can take:

•   Tables: these could include summaries of

surveys, specification sheets or transport

timetables.

•   Graphs: these are used in science and

business to provide information in such

a way that it can be absorbed quickly and

easily. For example, a graph may show

variables such as temperature over time;

financial data may be shown in bar charts.

•   Words: numerical, spatial, logical and

many other types of information can be

summarised or described in words.

•   Pictorial: pictures, for example in the form

of engineers’ or architects’ drawings, can

be used not only to show what something

looks like, but also to give information

about relative sizes and positions.

•   Diagrammatic: diagrams come in a

wide range of forms: flow charts, maps,

schedules, decision trees and many other

types can summarise numerical and

spatial information.

The following series of activities is based on

various different forms of information. Try to

work them out by yourself before looking at

the answers and comments. These activities

also introduce some problem-solving methods

that are discussed further in later chapters.

Tabular information

The table shows the results of a survey into

participation in three types of regular

exercise taken by people from three

age groups.

Although the row and column totals are

correct, one of the individual figures in the

table has been typed incorrectly. Which is it?

Type of exercise

Age Gym Swimming Jogging Total

10–15 14 57 32 103

16–20 86 92 45 232

21–25 67 58 44 169

Total 167 207 130 504

Activity

Commentary

This table has a lot of figures, and finding the

incorrect one might seem quite daunting.

However, we must look at what we are trying

to do and what information we have.

In this case we know that only one

individual entry is incorrect and that the