"The backwards ones?" - Undergraduate students' reactions and approaches to example generation exercises

As part of a project exploring the design and use of mathematical tasks to promote conceptual understanding of Calculus concepts, first year undergraduate students were assigned homework problems which required them to use various processes including generalising, conjecturing, evaluating statements, analysing reasoning and generating examples. In subsequent interviews with five students, a number of them spontaneously referred to the example generation problems posed as being the "backwards ones" or requiring them to work backwards as well as forwards. In this paper, we will report on the students' reactions to a particular example generation exercise, the strategies they adopted in an effort to solve such problems, and what they feel they learnt in the process