course, each of them seems plausible to me, but most of them have not been
evaluated. I am suggesting, though, that the number of plausible strategies is
large.
Another person teaching a course with the same orientation as mine might
choosetoteachmanyofthesamestrategies.However,therearemanydifferent
waystoorientabasicstrategiescourse.Forexample,acoursecouldbefocused
on human relations problems or on math, on writing or on spoken communi-
cation, on learning through reading or on the analysis of arguments. Further,
courses could be aimed at college students, or high school or grammar school
students.Eachfocusandeachagelevelwouldrequireaverydifferentselection
of strategies. Polya’sHow To Solve It(1973), which focuses on mathematics,
includes some 60 strategies. Relatively few of these, perhaps 15, overlap with
those in table 23.1. Taken together, these courses might easily include several
hundreddifferentplausiblestrategies—perhapsasmanyasathousand.
The large number of plausible strategies poses a problem for us. Evaluating
hundreds of strategies is a major research task—one that will not soon be
completed. Fortunately, some excellent strategy evaluation work is already
under way. However, until much more is done, choosing which strategies to
teachwill involve guesses and potentially faultyjudgment.
Beingmistakenaboutstrategiescanhaveseriousconsequences.Forexample,
a student in my course had written an essay that had omitted an important
qualificationofitsmajorpoint.Thestudent’steachingassistantpointedoutthis
flaw and precipitatedthe following dialogue:
Student: ‘‘Iknow, butIalready havethree paragraphs.’’
TA: ‘‘What?’’
Student: ‘‘I’ve already proposed three ideas, so I’ve used up my three
paragraphs.’’
TA: ‘‘What?’’
Student: ‘‘Anessay hasjustthreeparagraphs.’’
TA: ‘‘What?’’
Student: ‘‘Beginning,middle,andend.So yousee,Ijustcouldn’taddanextra
idea.’’
Clearly,thisstudenthaslearnedsomeratheroddstrategiesforwritingthatput
serious constraints onwhat he was able to dowith language.
College English teachers report that they frequently observe equally bizarre
strategies. One teacher, for example, reported that a student had asked her,
‘‘Aren’tyougoingtogive me extra creditbecauseIdidn’tuse anypronouns in
my paper?’’
Failure to Generalize Strategies
Sometimesastrategythatoughttogeneralizedoesnot.HerbSimonandIhave
workedagooddealwithproblemisomorphs(1976)—thatis,withsetsofprob-
lems that have the same underlying structure, but different cover stories. For
example, we have developed and studied a set of problems, all of which are
identicalinformtothefamousTowerofHanoipuzzle.Fouroftheseproblems,
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