The role of open-ended problems in mathematics education

Abstract

Open-ended problems have become a popular educational tool in mathematics education in recent years. Since mathematical research is nothing but a daily confrontation with open-ended problems, the introduction of this type of problems to the classroom brings mathematical education one step closer to real mathematics. The appearance of these problems in secondary education is therefore a welcome sight from a mathematical standpoint. More than this is true, however. While these problems may represent something of a pedagogical innovation to the professional educators, the fact is that many mathematicians have made use of them in their teaching all along and do not regard their presence in the classroom as any kind of departure in educational philosophy. For example, I myself have often given such problems in my homework assignments and exams. Nevertheless, I have chosen to take up this topic for discussion here because, after having reviewed a limited amount of curricular materials for mathematics in the schools, I could not help but notice that they pose certains hazards in practice. These hazards include the possibility of misinforming the students about the very nature of mathematics itself. To avoid meaningless generalities, I have se-