Definition of Mathematical Problem Posing

The term “problem posing” is used in different meanings, such as problem finding, problem generating, problem creating, problem sensing, problem formulating, creative problem discovering, problematizing, problem envisaging, problem modelling, etc. Problem posing is frequently defined as: 

• engaging a person in a task, the goal of which is to generate a new problem with a given set of conditions (Silver, 1994, p. 19); 

• the formulation of novel problems with solution unknown at least for its creator (Van den Heuval-Panhuizen et al. 1995);

• reformulation of an existing problem (Cohen & Stover, 1981); 

• the generation of new problems and the reformulation of given problems (Singer, Ellerton, & Cai, 2013, p. 3); 

• a special case of problem solving (Kontorovich, Koichu, Leikin, & Berman, 2012, p. 151); 

• a process by which, based on mathematical experience, students construct personal interpretations of concrete situations and from these situations formulate meaningful mathematical problems (Sriraman & Lee, 2011, p. 9; E. Stoyanova & Ellerton, 1996, p. 518).