WHAT MAKES A GOOD PROBLEM? AN AESTHETIC LENS

Much work in mathematics entails aesthetics judgments and values that are not often reflected in school mathematics. For quite some time mathematics educators and researchers have suggested that aesthetic dimension of mathematics learning should receive greater emphasis. In order for students to appreciate the nature and value of the mathematical aesthetic, teachers must be able to incorporate these aspects into the sociomathematical norms of the classroom, and must thus in particular be able to recognize what makes a good or interesting problem. In this paper, we describe elementary pre-service teachers' responses to what makes a good problem, and show how quickly and generatively they were able to incorporate aesthetic dimensions into their judgments of problems worth using in the classroom.