Reviving Pólya's “Look Back” in a Singapore school

This study is based on the stance that Pólya's “Look Back,” though understudied, remains relevant to Mathematics curricula that place emphasis on problem solving. Although the Singapore Mathematics curriculum adopts the goal of teaching Look Back, research about how it is carried out in actual classroom practice is rare. In our project, we focus on a redesign of a teacher development programme that is targeted to help teachers realize Pólya's original vision of Look Back in the classroom. We report the cases of two teachers who have participated in the teacher development programme: their thinking about Look Back (through interview records) and their interpretation of Look Back in their classroom practice (through video records). By bringing these two spheres of data together, we discuss their degree of ‘buy-in’ to Look Back in the overall problem solving enterprise.

► This paper reports on an attempt to revive Polya's Fourth Stage: Look Back.
► The project involves curriculum re-development and teacher preparation for carrying out Look Back in their classes.
► Data on the teachers’ thoughts and classroom practices regarding Look Back were analysed.
► The teachers demonstrated substantial buy-in into Look Back – both in the amount of time devoted in class and the degree of fidelity to Polya's conception of this stage.