A Collection of Problem-Posing Experiences for Prospective Mathematics Teachers that Make a Difference

Without significant work on problem posing during teacher preparation, prospective teachers will enter the profession with limited vision and strategies for mathematics teaching. Based on previous and ongoing research on problem posing, the author proposes three essential strands for a problem posing framework that strives to teach prospective teachers to: (a) mindfully pose problems to students; (b) engage in problem posing with their students; and (c) pose personally and socially relevant mathematics problems. These strands engage prospective teachers with enduring questions for teachers of mathematics: What makes a mathematics problem educational? Who poses mathematics problems in the classroom? and Why do people spend time posing and solving mathematics problems? These three strands, individually and combined, can empower prospective teachers as problem posers and as teachers of mathematics who will pose rich and engaging problems to and with their future students.

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