Overview

Life constantly confronts us with problems ranging from the trivial to the serious. We solve problems by drawing on knowledge, skill and experience. We educate our young to solve problems, first offering them examples to which we already know the answers, later challenging them with problems of an open-ended nature. We hope that, as they grow into adulthood, our children will be ready to face new problems with confidence, and will join the ranks of problem solvers.

In everyday life we solve simpler problems by instinct and the harder ones by past knowledge. In professional practice every new problem may call for its own novel solution. This does not mean that every problem solver is, and remains, a novice. Fortunately it is possible to classify problems by discovering in them common patterns. Such patterns reveal inherent similarities between problems which at first sight appear very different. Problem solvers exploit this: they accumulate and pool experience and classify problems according to frequently occurring patterns; they distil the principles of the subject and define its basic concepts; they formulate methods which embody good practice. As the subject develops and matures, its scientific foundations are identified, are set out in theories, and are taught to newcomers to the field. Skilled and experienced practitioners get together to form a professional community, and define requirements of professional qualification.

The aims, principles, concepts, theories, scientific foundations, methods and problem solving strategies collectively form the methodological foundations of a discipline. Experts are practitioners of a discipline,...