ABSTRACT
The teaching and learning of the majority of topics found in mathematics classrooms concurrently provides an opportunity to teach (mathematical) heuristics, which, according to the eminent mathematician George Polya (1954), are the mental operations useful for understanding the process of solving problems. The teaching and learning of combinatorics, as an example, further lends itself to the “Do you know a related problem?” heuristic: individuals tasked with determining “How many ways can x individuals sit around a table?” rely on the result and, to an extent, the method for determining the related problem of “How many ways can x individuals sit in a row?” Stated in more general terms, the teaching and learning of the majority of topics in mathematics classrooms lends itself to the teaching and learning of thinking and, as a domain of research, is well established.
