OPTION 10

Problem Finding in Mathematics (90 Minutes)

Many of the tasks that we use in mathematics teaching are closed with single, correct answers. This workshop is focused on exposing students to open-ended problems that lead to further explorations as their curiosity is piqued. Skill in pattern recognition, creating generalisations, proof and justification is a focus. Open-ended problems encourage higher order thinking skills. Students will not only be “recognizing”, “identifying”, or “describing” their thinking; they’ll be “justifying”, “defending”, and “evaluating” their problem solving skills and how they arrived at their answers. Problem finding often takes us in unexpected directions as there is no limit to our gifted students’ imagination. Teachers are welcome to bring their own problems or work on some examples to design tasks suitable for their classes.