A Study of Problem Posing as a Means to Help Mathematics Teachers Foster Creativity

Abstract

The editorial staff of JHM works hard to make sure the scholarship disseminated in JHM is accurate and upholds professional ethical guidelines. However the views and opinions expressed in each published manuscript belong exclusively to the individual contributor(s). The publisher and the editors do not endorse or accept responsibility for them. See https://scholarship.claremont.edu/jhm/policies.html for more information. Abstract Teaching to develop creativity often requires a shift in instructional tasks. In this paper, we first summarize the body of research related to instructors facilitating and recognizing mathematical creativity. We then provide details as to how one graduate course, designed to help mathematics educators develop a sense of school mathematics from an advanced standpoint, provided opportunities for students to: recognize the difference between problems and exercises, pose problems , reflect on the quality of the tasks they created and review tasks created by others. This series of activities were designed to help the graduate students recognize and appreciate mathematical creativity. We then review the instructional activities in light of the five overarching principles to maximize creativity in K-12 mathematics classrooms suggested by Sriraman [36] and discuss how these might relate to the post-secondary and graduate education of mathematics educators.