Catalyzing Genetic Thinking in Undergraduate Mathematics Education

In undergraduate mathematics education, atypical problem solving approaches are usually discouraged because they are not adaptive to systematic deduction on which undergraduate instructional systems are predicated. I present preliminary qualitative research evidence that indicates that these atypical approaches, such as genetic guessing, which sometimes are instantiations of implicit learning, often catalyze genetic thinking, the synthesis of novel insights. Consequently, I present a conceptual framework illustrating how implicit learning-based atypical problem solving approaches may enhance student engagement and learning outcomes, and catalyze genetic thinking.