More active thinking in teaching and learning mathematics

The aim of the study is to gain insight into the knowledge and skills that (prospective) teachers need to promote students’ mathematical problem solving in primary education, and how teacher education programs can prepare future teachers for this.

This research contributes to the development of the course ‘Teaching Problem Solving’ for HU Primary Teacher Education. The course is grounded in scientific research and is refined in three study iterations.

Based on a systematic literature review, the course on problem solving is developed for primary teacher education students. Their reports on teaching problem solving during their primary school placements are (with consent) used to further optimize the course.

This project aims to optimally prepare prospective primary school teachers for teaching mathematical problem solving in primary education. This is important because problem solving is a new core objective, and it is known to be challenging for teachers to teach.

This project is being carried out together with the Freudenthal Institute of Utrecht University.