Math Puzzles as Learning Devices

Abstract

As Polya (1957) cogently argued, the use of puzzles and games has always been part of doing and learning mathematics since its emergence as an autonomous discipline (see also Parker 1955; Gardner 1998). The reason for this long-standing pedagogical practice may be that puzzles stimulate the imagination more so than any other type of mental faculty and are thus likely to be highly effective devices at various stages of the learning process. The purpose of this chapter is to consider the cognitive reasons supporting this implicit pedagogical principle. The use of puzzles and games in math education can be called, for the sake of convenience, educational recreational mathematics (ERM).