Attending to task variables when engaging in group problem posing for elementary level mathematics

Abstract

In light of the growing interest in research examining problem posing, this study explores an under-researched aspect – group problem posing. It examines the role of problem situations and prompts, introduced within a problem posing intervention, on the nature of the problems posed by groups of pre-service elementary teachers for children in two 4th grade classes. The impact of the group on the problem posing process was also explored. The findings reveal improvements in the quality of the problems posed due to a number of factors including the use of textbook problems as initial problem situations that supported problem reformulation, the constructive role of prompts to focus attention on desirable problem features and the valuable role of feedback in determining problem aptness. A challenge when problem posing was difficulty coordinating attention to multiple problem features, however, this was mediated by the affordance of working in groups which served to share the responsibility for, and enhance, problem quality alongside the use of the F-PosE problem posing framework which focused attention on desirable problem features.