What do high school teachers mean by saying “I pose my own problems”?

Michal Klinshtern, Boris Koichu, Avi Berman

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

The aim of this chapter was to identify mathematics teachers' conceptions of the notion of “problem posing.” The data were collected from a web-based survey, from about 150 high school mathematics teachers, followed by eight semistructured interviews. An unexpected finding shows that more than 50% of the teachers see themselves as problem posers for their teaching. This fi nding is not in line with the literature, which gives the impression that not many mathematics teachers are active problem posers. In addition, we identifi ed four types of teachers' conceptions for “problem posing.” We found that the teachers tended to explain what problem posing meant to them in ways that would embrace their own practices. Our findings imply that most of the mathematics teachers are result-oriented-as opposed to being process-oriented-when they talk about problem posing. Moreover, many teachers who pose problems doubt the ability of their students to do so and consider problem-posing tasks inappropriate for their classrooms.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMathematical Problem Posing
Subtitle of host publicationFrom Research to Effective Practice
EditorsFlorence Mihaela Singer, Nerida F. Ellerton, Jinfa Cai
Place of PublicationNew York, NY
PublisherSpringer New York
Pages449-467
Number of pages19
ISBN (Electronic)9781461462583
ISBN (Print)9781461462576, 978-1-4614-6258-3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2015

Publication series

NameResearch in Mathematics Education book series (RME)

Keywords

  • Experienced teachers
  • High-school
  • Innovative problems
  • Mathematics teachers
  • Problem ownership
  • Problem posing
  • Resources for choosing mathematical problems for teaching
  • Routine problems
  • Teachers’ conceptualizations
  • Web-based survey

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Social Sciences

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'What do high school teachers mean by saying “I pose my own problems”?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this