Exploring underprepared undergraduate students’ mathematical problem posing

This study investigated 45 undergraduate students’ mathematical problem posing based on four problem situations. This study was designed to better understand the kinds of problems they pose, and the kinds of mathematical ideas exhibited when problem posing. The findings of this study support that underprepared college students can pose mathematical problems and were largely capable of engaging with the critical mathematical ideas embedded in problem-posing tasks. Problem-posing tasks, then, appear to be a context within which underprepared undergraduate students can successfully engage with key mathematical ideas. The main implication of these findings is that problem posing appears to be amenable to being harnessed as a pedagogical tool for developmental mathematics courses.