How to Pose Problems on Periodicity and Teaching with Problem Posing

Abstract

Research on how to pose good problems in mathematical science is rarely touched. Inspired by Kilpatrick’s “Where do good problems come from?”, the current research investigates the problem of the specific problem posed by mathematicians in mathematical sciences. We select a recent mathematical conjecture of Yang related to periodic functions in the field of functions of one complex variable. These problems are extended to complex differential equations, difference equations, differential-difference equations, etc. Through mathematical analysis, we try to reproduce the effective strategies or techniques used by mathematicians in posing these new problems. The results show that mathematicians often use generalization, constraint manipulation, and specialization when they pose new mathematical problems. Conversely, goal manipulation and targeting a particular solution are rarely used. The results of the study may have a potential impact and promotion on implementing problem-posing teaching in primary and secondary schools. Accordingly, teachers and students can be encouraged to think like mathematicians, posing better problems and learning mathematics better. Then, we give some examples of mathematical teaching at the high school level using problem-posing strategies, which are frequently employed by mathematicians or mathematical researchers, and demonstrate how these strategies work. Therefore, this is a pioneering research that integrates the mathematical problem posing by mathematicians and the mathematical problem posing by elementary and secondary school math teachers and students. In addition, applying constraint manipulation and analogical reasoning, we present four unsolved mathematical problems, including three problems of complex difference-related periodic functions and one problem with complex difference equations.