Students’ Assumptions during Problem Solving

This paper analyses the solving process of two undergraduate students on a non-routine mathematical problem. By comparing these students’ work, it can be observed that their processes suggest different approaches in relation to the way a solution was sought. One student followed a process in which his principal activities were centred on discovering those key ideas that would allow him to tackle the problem. The other seemed to be more focused on inventing a way of dealing with the situation and building a solution to the problem. Since in order to invent a solution some useful facts have to be first stated or discovered, it may be speculated that a process which aim is to invent is more flexible than a process which aim is to discover.