A Classroom Research In Grade 8 Integrated With Mathematical Problem-Posing

As the key to developing creativity the teaching of problem-posing is being paid more and more attention.Mathematics curriculum standard for compulsory education asks to find out the quantitative relation and spatial form from objective phenomenon of the real world and put forward mathematical questions.There have been several theoretical studies on mathematical problem-posing,but practical researches are limited,especially those focusing on students of one certain grade.Based on the background,by analyzing related reference,the researcher puts forward three research questions targeted at Grade 8 students in a city.this study tries to find out the current status of posing mathematical problems and the level of students’ problem-posing abilities to ⑴ What is the current status of mathematical problemposing for Grade 8 students? ⑵ How to design the integration of mathematical problem-posing and classroom teaching? ⑶ What are the effects of integrating mathematical problem-posing and classroom teaching?The findings of the research are listed as follows.Grade 8 students have great awareness of posing problems and recognize the importance of it,but they have few chance to join in relevant class activities.The teachers also value students’ awareness of problem-posing while they seldom give proper instructions.Grade 8 students have nice performance in three dimensions of problem-posing ability: mathematical features>essential features> language features.Students of different schools show different results.Students of schools with better teaching quality and resources perform better.According to the given condition,Grade 8 students put forward mathematical problems in three periods of problem-solving.The results vary: before problem-solving> after problem-solving> while problem-solving.By integrating problem-posing and classroom teaching,the researcher finds out findings below.Firstly,exposed to problem-posing,students are aware of the essential features of the questions they put forward.They can give reasonable known conditions and the questions are solvable.There is a great improvement in students’ ability to grasp the essential features of mathematical questions.Secondly,problem-posing teaching can inspire students to offer hidden conditions,which makes the question more difficult.It can also inspire students to put forward questions including more quantitative terms and original questions.Besides,students are more inclined to think deeply and design mathematical questions with a better structure by adding more terms and hidden conditions.Thirdly,problem-posing teaching contributes to the language features of questions put forward by students.The teaching of problem-posing has a great influence on students’ ability to pose mathematical problems according to the interview with three students and a teacher.The encouraging environment is the premise in the process of developing students’ ability to pose questions.Teachers’ instruction is the necessary condition to develop students’ ability of problem-posing.Students’ active participation is the main way to develop the ability to pose questions.