From Solving Problems to Problem Solving : Primary School Teachers Developing Their Mathematics Teaching through Collaborative Professional Development

In many countries, problem solving in mathematics plays a substantial role in the syllabus, promoting the basic aim that pupils develop a deeper understanding of mathematics. However, in many countries there are few classrooms in which mathematics teaching through problem solving has truly been implemented. This article reports findings from a study of Swedish primary school teachers who, within a collaborative professional-development initiative, worked to improve their mathematics teaching, focusing on problem solving. Several studies have reported on the mathematical knowledge primary school teachers have, do not have, and ought to have. This article, however, does not evaluate the knowledge possessed by the teachers but instead focuses on how the professional collaborative learning initiative influenced the teachers' awareness of problem solving as content. The collaborative professional-development initiative had a cyclic design in which changes in the teachers' awareness became visible in their jointly produced lesson plans and pre-tests. Changes in these documents show how the role of problem solving in the teachers' mathematics classroom shifted in accordance with the historical development of problem solving as content in school: problem solving as a context, as a skill, and as an art