Young students posing problem-solving tasks: what does posing a similar task imply to students?

Abstract

This paper focuses on problem solving and problem posing in mathematics education with 6-year-olds. After working on a problem-solving activity, the young students were asked to pose a similar task to a friend. This article explores how the students interpret the notion of similar. To be able to pose a problem-solving task themselves the students had to change perspective, from searching for information to providing information, and from searching for a solution to searching for a question. Also, to create a similar task the students had to reflect on the original problem-solving task. Thus, their posed tasks shed light on their interpretation of what the original problem-solving task was really about. The results show that the large majority of the students included some three-dimensional aspects from the original problem-solving task in their posed tasks. However, the questions they posed varied in terms of whether or not they included mathematical elements.

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