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Research in Mathematics Education
Series Editors: Jinfa Cai · James A. Middleton
Broadening the
Scope of Research
on Mathematical
Problem Solving
A Focus on Technology, Creativity and
Affect
Research in Mathematics Education
Series editors
Jinfa Cai, Newark, DE, USA
James A. Middleton, Tempe, AZ, USA
This series is designed to produce thematic volumes, allowing researchers to access
numerous studies on a theme in a single, peer-reviewed source. Our intent for this
series is to publish the latest research in the field in a timely fashion. This design is
particularly geared toward highlighting the work of promising graduate students
and junior faculty working in conjunction with senior scholars. The audience for
this monograph series consists of those in the intersection between researchers and
mathematics education leaders—people who need the highest quality research,
methodological rigor, and potentially transformative implications ready at hand to
help them make decisions regarding the improvement of teaching, learning, policy,
and practice. With this vision, our mission of this book series is:
1. To support the sharing of critical research findings among members of the
mathematics education community;
2. To support graduate students and junior faculty and induct them into the research
community by pairing them with senior faculty in the production of the highest
quality peer-reviewed research papers; and
3. To support the usefulness and widespread adoption of research-based innovation.
Keith Jones
School of Education
University of Southampton
Southampton, UK
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
This book has its origins in the Problem@Web International Conference, subtitled
Technology, creativity, and affect in mathematical problem solving, which took
place in 2014 in Portugal1 (Carreira, Amado, Jones, & Jacinto, 2014). The confer-
ence was the culmination of the Problem@Web research project conducted in
Portugal (with the support of FCT, the Portuguese research funding agency) and
was also one of the project outcomes (Carreira, Jones, Amado, Jacinto, & Nobre,
2016). The event offered an opportunity to share the project results, as well as to
connect researchers and experts from various parts of the world involved in the
study of problem solving, taking into account the multiple aspects of this area of
study. One major aim of the conference was to assemble emerging and cutting-edge
knowledge on what has been a highly relevant and fundamental subject in
Mathematics Education research for several decades. The awareness that this field
of research is invigorating, and has today new extensions, developments, theoretical
approaches, practical implications, and international relevance, was one of the great
motivations of the Problem@Web conference.
To a certain extent, following up on the developments and challenges in research
on mathematical problem solving was an impetus for the Problem@Web project
that was launched to investigate youngsters’ (aged 10–14) mathematical problem
solving activity in a context beyond school, namely in the sphere of two mathemati-
cal competitions.2 These competitions are inclusive problem solving competitions,
involving the use of digital technologies, bringing families and teachers closer to the
mathematical activity of young people, and generating opportunities for the mani-
festation of mathematical creativity through original approaches to moderate math-
ematical challenges (Carreira et al., 2016).
At the Problem@Web conference, we sought submissions in the three strands of
technology, creativity, and affect in mathematical problem solving, by considering
the school context but also others such as mathematical competitions.
1
http://www.fctec.ualg.pt/problemweb2014/
2
http://fctec.ualg.pt/matematica/5estrelas/
v
vi Preface
References
Carreira, S., Amado, N., Jones, K., & Jacinto, H. (2014). Proceedings of the Problem@Web
International Conference: Technology, creativity and affect in mathematical problem solving.
Faro, Portugal: Universidade do Algarve. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/3750.
Carreira, S., Jones, K., Amado, N., Jacinto, H., & Nobre, S. (2016). Youngsters solving math-
ematical problems with technology: The results and implications of the Problem@Web project.
Cham, CH: Springer.
Contents
ix
x Contents
Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 571
Chapter 1
Broadening Research on Mathematical
Problem-Solving: An Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Although there is debate over the extent to which such goals are new (Suto, 2013),
the current stimulus for education to address a wider range of goals does mean that
mathematical problem-solving continues to be a key element of the mathematics
curriculum across countries and a central aim of mathematics teaching and learning.
Not only that, but, in meeting these “new” ways of thinking and working, the man-
ner in which mathematical problem-solving is taught and learnt needs to embed the
increasingly widespread use of digital technologies, the promotion of creativity, and
the recognition of the affective and aesthetic dimensions.
This is the stimulus for this book, with its focus on mathematical problem-
solving in different educational environments in the early decades of the twenty-
first century. The book gathers together contributions from leading researchers in
mathematics education (and related research areas such as the psychology of educa-
tion, technology education, mathematics popularisation, and other relevant fields) to
capture the broadening of research on mathematical problem-solving that has been
taking place in recent years in different educational environments. The book pres-
ents the three major themes of technology, creativity, and affect, within which new
pedagogical and research perspectives are presented. Each of the three themes rep-
resents crucial issues that are being solidly embedded in the activity of problem-
solving in the teaching and learning of mathematics, both within the school setting
and beyond the school. The book illustrates the broadening of the scope of research
on mathematical problem-solving by not only examining each of the three themes
of technology, creativity, and affect separately but also, in the final section, moving
the field of research forward by evidencing a strong interconnection between the
facets of technology, creativity, and affect, each of which has consistently shaped
problem-solving. Thus, it reinforces the challenge to endorse a more comprehensive
approach to research on mathematical problem-solving.
In this chapter, we provide a short overview of research on mathematical
problem-solving. We use this as a springboard to introduce the central themes of
the book: technology in mathematical problem-solving, creativity in mathemati-
cal problem-solving, and affect and aesthetics in mathematical problem-solving.
We conclude by introducing the final section of the book on making evident the
need to investigate in a comprehensive way how technology, creativity, and
affect and aesthetics in mathematical problem-solving are being brought together.
We begin by outlining some of the central trends in research on mathematical
problem-solving over the past decades.
the impact and the effects of using technology in problem-solving activity, the
mediational role of technology in problem-solving, the relationship between strate-
gies and the use of digital and visual representations, the nature of digitally based
communication and expression of the results of mathematical problem-solving, and
so on. As noted by Santos-Trigo (2014), such research is likely to entail extending
previous frameworks for mathematical problem-solving and developing different
methods to explain mathematical processes that are now enhanced through the use
of digital tools. It is some of these issues that are tackled in this section of this book.
In Chap. 2, Jacinto, Nobre, Carreira, and Amado (2018) analyse the representa-
tional and conceptual expressiveness that youngsters (aged 10–14 years old)
exhibit when they use digital tools to shape and support their reasoning and solu-
tions to mathematical problems. Through their analysis, Jacinto et al. offer a way
of identifying levels of sophistication and robustness of technology-based solu-
tions to problems, according to the characteristics of the tool used and its connec-
tion to the conceptual models underlying students’ thinking on the problems. For
Chap. 3, Parzysz (2018) uses the didactical framework of Mathematical Working
Spaces (MWS) (Kuzniak, Tanguay, & Elia, 2016) to inquire into the cognitive and
epistemological aspects of using digital technology to tackle probability prob-
lems. In doing so, he illustrates how the role of technology is not just to make it
easier to get a large data set in a short time but constitutes an important element
for mathematical problem-solving.
Analysing the ways of reasoning exhibited by high school teachers when using
a specific technology, in this case, dynamic geometry software is the focus of
Chap. 4 by Santos-Trigo, Camacho-Machín, and Olvera-Martínez (2018). They
report that the use of the particular technology not only offered a set of affordances
for the teachers to test the pertinence of their initial ideas but also a family of
examples that could be examined in order to detect patterns or possible relation-
ships between relevant parameters. Canavarro and Reis (2018), in Chap. 5, focus
on analysing the contributions that a specific technology, that of the interactive
whiteboard, provides for the development of dialogical interaction in the context
of mathematical problem-solving. They argue that the multimodality and interac-
tivity available with this particular technology simultaneously stimulate and sup-
port students’ mathematical problem-solving.
For Fernandes, Lopes, and Martins (2018), in Chap. 6, the need is to understand
how the use of a specific technology, in this case robots, acts as a mediating artefact
of learning that contributes to mathematical problem-solving. They found that using
the particular technology had a transformative impact on the way students negoti-
ated the meaning of mathematical knowledge for their problem-solving. Mariotti
and Baccaglini-Frank (2018), in Chap. 7, illustrate how, when using a particular
technology, there are specific visualisation skills that are differently involved in
mathematical problem-solving processes. They show how problem-solving pro-
cesses can be described through the combination of different visual-mathematical
skills that are necessary in problem-solving.
In the final chapter of this section, Chap. 8, Powell (2018) reflects on the use of
digital technology in mathematical problem-solving situations investigated in the
6 N. Amado et al.
six preceding chapters. Through his analysis of the six chapters, Powell shows how
the chapters capture how learners develop powerful ways of seeing and acting
mathematically in the context of technology-enhanced mathematical problem-
solving. He concludes that, while the six chapters highlight a diversity of perspec-
tives on how technology shapes mathematical problem-solving, there still remain
research questions to address.
As can be inferred from some of the chapters in the book edited by Singer (2018),
research on creativity in students’ mathematical problem-solving seeks to address
the relationship between problem-solving activity and mathematical creativity. This
is likely to include research on how problem-solving promotes the development of
creativity across student attainment levels, the analysis of creative solutions in terms
of strategies and expressive media, the relationship between creativity and inven-
tiveness in solving mathematical problems, the creativity involved in exposing and
communicating solutions and processes, the fostering creativity in school mathe-
matics and beyond (including mathematical competitions), and so on. It is some of
these issues that are tackled in this section of this book.
In Chap. 9, Carreira and Amaral (2018) analyse and examine the close and com-
plex relationship between mathematical creativity and mathematical problem-
solving. They propose an analytical tool that guides the identification of features of
mathematical problem-solving pertaining to the three dimensions of originality,
knowledge activation, and representational means activation. For Chap. 10, Tabach
and Levenson (2018) focus on the mathematical creativity elicited by mathematical
problems that can be solved in many different ways. On the basis of their analysis,
they argue that creative mathematical problem-solving can involve a combination of
convergent and divergent thinking and that following one line of thought to an even-
tual end may actually lead to a new direction and new solution path.
Analysing the links between the use of visual solutions to problems and mathe-
matical creativity is the focus of Chap. 11 by Vale, Pimentel, and Barbosa (2018).
Based on their analysis, they argue that problem-solving approaches that use visual
representations bring out the development of creative thinking. Vanegas and
Giménez (2018), in Chap. 12, focus on developing the proficiency of future teachers
in what might be called creativity-directed teaching. While they found that the
future teachers that they studied had difficulties in identifying authentic traits of
creativity in children’s problem-solving activity, the future teachers did think that it
would be possible for children to learn to improve their mathematical creativity.
For Bokhove and Jones (2018) in Chap. 13, mathematical creativity can be stim-
ulated through tasks that have constraints rather than necessarily requiring open-
ended mathematical tasks. They show how tasks with suitable constraints can also
serve as creativity-inducing problem-solving tasks. Moore-Russo and Demler
(2018), in Chap. 14, report on an exploration of educators’ conceptions of creativity.
1 Broadening Research on Mathematical Problem-Solving: An Introduction 7
Through their study, they found how different views of creativity impact on the way
educators consider methods for fostering creativity in mathematics classrooms.
In Chap. 15, Gómez-Chacón and de la Fuente (2018) aimed at analysing the
nature of mediation in student’s creative processes. They show, on the basis of high
school students’ reports, how the process of generating a mathematical research
project from a specific given problem not only requires creativity on the part of the
students but also the mediation of the teacher for the establishment of a creative
suitable working space. For Chap. 16, Gontijo (2018) explains the systems perspec-
tive on creativity (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988, 1999) that considers creativity as a result
of the interaction of three systems: person (genetic background and personal experi-
ences), domain (culture and scientific production), and field (social system).
In the final chapter of this section, Chap. 17, Leikin (2018) reflects on the
studies of creativity in mathematical problem-solving contained in the preceding
eight chapters in this section of the book. Through her analysis of the eight chap-
ters, Leikin formulates a categorisation of creativity-directed mathematical tasks
in terms of openness, constraints, and mathematical insight. She argues that
using this range of tasks in the classroom can provide a springboard for the
development of children’s cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal skills and
that such use of creativity-directed mathematical tasks warrants further investi-
gation on a larger scale.
As can be surmised from some of the sections of the review by Goldin et al.
(2016), research on affect and aesthetics in mathematical problem-solving
embraces research on attitudes, aesthetics, emotions, and so on of students, par-
ents, and teachers regarding mathematical problem-solving. This is likely to
include research addressing the role and influence of affect and emotion in prob-
lem-solving activity; how emotions shape mathematical problem-solving; the
question of enjoyment in mathematical problem-solving; the perceptions of stu-
dents, teachers, and parents about the emotional dimensions of problem-solving;
the notion of help-seeking in mathematical problem-solving activity; problem-
solving as an enrichment activity connecting school, parents, family, and home
(including mathematical competitions); and so on. It is some of these issues that
are tackled in this section of this book.
In Chap. 18, Amado and Carreira (2018) use an analytical model to study atti-
tudes towards mathematical problem-solving. They report that the emotional
dimension of mathematical problem-solving is related to the type of problems
proposed and to the encouragement of expressing the process that leads to the
solution of a problem. For Chap. 19, Presmeg (2018) focuses on some of the sig-
nificant aspects of both aesthetic sense and affective issues, which she describes
as two under-researched domains, in solving nonroutine mathematical problems.
She concludes that the positive emotions generated under the umbrella of aes-
8 N. Amado et al.
While the main three sections of the book address the central themes of technology
in mathematical problem-solving, creativity in mathematical problem-solving, and
affect and aesthetics in mathematical problem-solving, the final section of the book
emphasises the broadening of research on mathematical problem-solving in which
technology, creativity, and affect and aesthetics in mathematical problem-solving
are brought together. This endeavour of broadening the research on mathematical
problem-solving, by looking at its multiple dimensions in a comprehensive way, is
exemplified by Freiman (2018), in Chap. 25.
As Powell (2018) says in Chap. 8, the six chapters on the use of digital technol-
ogy in mathematical problem-solving situations illustrate how the use of technology
1 Broadening Research on Mathematical Problem-Solving: An Introduction 9
1.7 Conclusion
The collective efforts of all the authors of chapters in this book show the richness
of contemporary research in mathematical problem-solving. The empirical, theo-
retical, and methodological contributions of the chapters in the book are symptom-
atic of a vigorous field of research that is succeeding in broadening its scope and
embracing the themes of technology in mathematical problem-solving, creativity in
mathematical problem-solving, and affect and aesthetics in mathematical problem-
solving. The book details solid research findings that allow the building of further
theoretical foundations about mathematical problem-solving. At the same time, the
10 N. Amado et al.
book contains open questions and insufficiently explored avenues that are ripe for
additional research. We hope that a broad audience of researchers, educators, cur-
riculum designers, pre-service teachers, and doctoral students find the book chal-
lenging and useful for their current and future research work on mathematical
problem-solving and the closely related research fields of educational technologies,
creativity, and affect and aesthetics.
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An issue under discussion. In N. Amado, S. Carreira, & K. Jones (Eds.), Broadening the scope
of research on mathematical problem solving: A focus on technology, creativity and affect.
Cham, CH: Springer.
Vanegas, Y., & Giménez, J. (2018). Creativity and problem solving with early childhood future
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on mathematical problem solving: A focus on technology, creativity and affect. Cham, CH:
Springer.
Part I
Technology in Mathematical Problem
Solving
Chapter 2
Different Levels of Sophistication
in Solving and Expressing Mathematical
Problems with Digital Tools
2.1 Introduction
The research community has been acknowledging the significant role of beyond
school and extracurricular activities where youngsters throughout the world are
engaging in, which reveals a growing interest on studying its implications for math-
ematics learning contexts and also the impact of the formal curricular learning on
beyond school activities (Barbeau & Taylor, 2009; Wijers, Jonker, & Drijvers,
2010).
Presently, there are many organizations that support the development of mathe-
matical problem-solving skills by promoting competitions, clubs or summer
schools, among others. This is the case of the Mathematical Competitions SUB12®
and SUB14®, brought to young students in the south of Portugal (aged 10–14-year-
olds) by the University of Algarve.
Our research agenda has been focused on uncovering the skills these young com-
petitors use and master by taking advantage of everyday digital tools and their rep-
resentational expressiveness to shape and support their reasoning in the development
of a solution approach (Carreira, 2015; Jacinto, 2017; Jacinto & Carreira, 2013;
Nobre, Amado, & Carreira, 2012). One emergent outcome deals with the fact that
H. Jacinto (*)
Group of Schools Poeta Joaquim Serra and UIDEF, Instituto de Educação,
Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
e-mail: hjacinto@campus.ul.pt
S. Nobre
Group of Schools Paula Nogueira and UIDEF, Instituto de Educação,
Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
S. Carreira · N. Amado
Universidade do Algarve and UIDEF, Instituto de Educação, Universidade de Lisboa,
Lisbon, Portugal
there are different levels of robustness in the solutions produced by the participants
in the competitions, mainly in terms of the strategies they devise by means of a
particular technological tool while solving the problems.
In this chapter, we will focus on identifying and understanding the underlying
aspects of these different ways of solving a problem with the same tool. As our main
source of evidence, we will analyse a selection of solutions of two problems pro-
duced by participants in the SUB12 and SUB14 competitions, who resorted to
GeoGebra, in one case, and to Excel, in the other. We will also identify levels of
sophistication in the solutions produced with these tools.
Our main goal is to unveil how these youngsters are capable of creating effective
ways of reaching the solution to a problem and communicate it mathematically,
based on the digital resources at their disposal, in their daily lives and, most of them,
in their home environment (e.g. the tools available on their computers such as the
text editor, the electronic spreadsheet, the image editor or free access tools such as
GeoGebra). In the context of our research, solving mathematical problems means to
find ways of thinking about challenging situations where a mathematical stance is
suitable and useful, though it does not necessarily or exclusively encompass the use
of school mathematics. It is assumed that the concepts generated from intuitive and
common sense-based approaches are fundamental in problem-solving.
Within this kind of beyond-school problem-solving activity, the conceptual
model generated from the mathematization process may not have the sophistication
of a mathematical model. The conceptual models developed by the youngsters often
have an unsophisticated semblance, an informal tone and a look that strongly clings
on to the context suggested in the problem. Thus, we intend to understand the main
characteristics of these conceptual models when the solution of a problem is sup-
ported by the use of a digital tool, namely, the ways in which their different levels
of sophistication may be related to a specific tool for solving the problem and
expressing the underlying conceptual model.
occurring at the moment. Experience then integrates cognition; for instance, the use
of a computer is not limited to assist or support mathematical procedures in a par-
ticular context; rather it transforms the nature of what one can do in another moment,
i.e. it changes the essence of mathematical activity itself. Furthermore, research also
suggests that different collectives of humans-with-media may produce different
ways of knowing and thinking: the mathematical knowledge produced by humans-
with-paper-and-pencil is qualitatively different from that of humans-with-GeoGebra
(Villarreal & Borba, 2010).
*****
— Maalauksiani.
*****
*****
AARTEENKAIVAJA.
— Vuosi aikaa sitten sain tietää, mistä voisin löytää — jopa löytää
äärettömän paljokin. Mutta ensinkin se aarre ei ole saatavissa
lapiolla, ellen saa kaivaa vapaasti ja käyttää palvelukseeni sata
miestä? Kenties en löydä sitä sittenkään, sillä en tiedä kuinka syvällä
se piilee. Mutta kaikki velhojen kirjoissa ja kirjotuksissa sekä
kansantarinoissa mainitut merkit ovat siellä minulle ilmestyneet, ja
seudun asukkaat ovat monessa miespolvessa perättäin tienneet,
että aarre on olemassa. Mutta ilman loihtulukuja on mahdoton saada
sitä ilmiin. Täytyy kiristää haltioita kantamaan aarretta luokseni. Ja
tiedänkin, miten siinä on meneteltävä. Faustin "Kolmikertainen
hornanväkivipu" on minulla täällä levättini alla, ja noitapiiriin sekä
suitsutuksiin tarvittavat aineet ynnä turvakeinot, mitä loitsija
tarvinnee, on minulla osaksi täällä repussani, osaksi kaivettuna sen
tien viereen, josta paikalle päästään. Mutta loihtumies ei saa mennä
sinne yksin, ja parasta on, jos hän saa apurikseen papin ja
paholaisen manaajan, sillä yhtä varmaan kuin tiedän voivani itse
kutsua esiin ja pakottaa henkiä, ylitä epätietoinen olen kykenenkö
häjyläisiä karkottamaan pois…
— Noitakedolla.
— Slatten maalla.
— Sepä ikävää…
*****