Absolutely beautiful. This is the strategy that I use as well. I tell students that once they cross out the unnecessary details of the story, they are left with very few words that need to be converted to equations. A simple but effective approach. and you have my respect for that writing backwards thing that you do. Edit - I went from seeing this video to tutoring a student studying to take the SAT. We got to a word problem and as I started showing him the "cross out the extra un-needed words" I laughed. He asked what was so funny and I explained that I just saw a great presentation on this very style of how to approach problem solving. Polya's book is a great read.
Describing how the problem-solving process should be performed has very little to do with actually solving a problem. What is really needed to solve a problem is a set of cognitive and cultural *tools*. In mathematics, for example, you need to have under your belt a large set of math tools that you are able to use for analyzing and transforming your problem. This is what we call *experience*.
The title of the video is "Polya's Problem Solving Process" and this is what she's explaining. The professor never claimed that this is "what you actually need to solve a problem". Looks like you're trying to criticise just for the sake of it...
