Problem-posing tasks and their influence on pre-service teachers’ creative problem-posing performance and self-efficacy

In problem-posing research, the influence of task variables on problem-posing outcomes is a relatively new endeavor. To systematically vary task variables, we designed eight problem-posing tasks by crossing two problem-posing situations (unstructured vs. structured) with two problem-posing prompts (open vs. closed) and two mathematical contexts (patterns vs. geometry). Using this design, we investigated the influence of these task variables on (1) creative problem-posing performance, (2) problem-posing self-efficacy, and (3) the relationship between self-efficacy and creative problem-posing performance in 187 pre-service teachers. The analyses show that (1) the influence of the situation and prompt is small and topic-specific, (2) that self-efficacy is significantly lower in unstructured situations with an open prompt than in the other tasks, and (3) that creative problem-posing performance and self-efficacy are correlated negatively. The findings imply a need for more detailed investigations regarding the influence on creative problem-posing performance and for which subjects it is relevant.