Examining Interactions between Problem Posing and Problem Solving with Prospective Primary Teachers: A Case of Using Fractions

Existing studies have quantitatively evidenced the relatedness between problem posing and problem solving, as well as the magnitude of this relationship. However, the nature and features of this relationship need further qualitative exploration. This paper focuses on exploring the interactions, i.e., mutual effects and supports, between problem posing and problem solving. More specifically, this paper analyzes the forms of interactions that happened between these two activities, the ways that those interactions supported prospective primary teachers’ conceptual understanding, and the difficulties that prospective teachers encountered while engaged in alternating problem-posing and problem-solving activities. The results indicate that problem posing contributes to problem-solving effectiveness while problem solving supports participants in posing more reasonable problems. Finally, multiple difficulties that demonstrate prospective primary teachers’ misunderstanding with fractions and their operations provide insight for teacher educators to design problem-posing tasks involving fractions.