Abstract:

Problem posing skills are just as valuable as problem solving skills. Problem posing contributes to the development of students' learning, problem-solving skills, creativity and positive attitudes towards mathematics. Therefore, the problem posing process includes higher cognitive skills beyond the problem solving process. This study aims to examine the problem posing status of sixth grade students about natural numbers. The case study, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. The research was conducted with 23 sixth grade students studying at a public school in a city in Turkey in the 2018-2019 academic year. The data of the research were collected with a form that includes four problem posing situations, one of which is structured, two of which is semi-structured, and one is free problem posing. Content analysis was used in the analysis of the data collected in the study. Data analysis was carried out in two stages. First, the problems posed by the students were classified. Afterwards, the situations determined as mathematical problems according to this classification result were evaluated as qualifications based on the complexity criterion, one of the problem posing evaluation criteria. According to the findings of the study, approximately four-fifths of the students' answers to problem posing situations are mathematical problems, and more than half of them are sufficient mathematical problems suitable for the given ones. Again, the findings revealed that the sufficient mathematical problems posed by the students differed in quality. More than half of adequate problems are low complexity problems, while one third are medium complexity problems. In the study, the number of low complexity problems created by students is higher than the total number of medium complexity and high complexity problems. This shows that the vast majority of problems posed by students are of low complexity.

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