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CREATIVITY IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF MATHEMATICS: ISSUES AND PROSPECTS

Noraini Idris Department of Mathematics and Science Education Faculty of Education University of Malaya Kreativiti dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran matematik di dalam bilik darjah akan memberi ruang yang luas kepada perkembangan potensi pelajar seperti mengembangkan minat, mengasah bakat dan kebolehan, mengembangkan pelbagai kemahiran serta memberi kepuasan kepada individu untuk mencapai kejayaan. Pengaliran idea yang kreatifdan inovatif dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran matematik liapat memperluaskan daya pemikiran kreatifpara pelajar, Penggunaan pelbagai metodologi atau perkaedahan dapat menyuburkan unsur-unsur kreativiti dalam bilik darjah. Dalam era pembangunan negara yang pesat ini, teknologi telah menjadi alat penyelesaian masalah dalam perindustrian dan perniagaan. Teknologi boleh dianggap sebagai alat, strategi danpendekatan untuk mengembangkan daya kreativiti pelajar dan guru dalam bilik darjah. Dalam artikel ini, penulis akan membincangkan tentang apakah itu kreativiti, prosedur untuk mengukur kreativiti dan isu-isu serta prospek kreativiti dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran matematik.

In this information and communication technology age, creative and skilled manpower are needed to support the vision of our nation. But the question is, "What kind of work do students find totally engaging to promote creativity?" Students want and need work that stimulates their curiosity and awakens their desire for deep understanding. As for topics that relate to students' lives, the connection here cannot be superficial; it must involve an issue or idea that is manageable. How can we connect them? To prepare students for life in today's highly technical society, their mathematical and science knowledge as well as creativity must include and go beyond knowledge of the simple skills into capability to solve more complex problems. Malaysia, like many other nations, is cognizant of the need to facilitate the education of smart learners capable of working competently with others in teams in an information technology environment and to be aware of their own learning, performance, and creativity. We need to prepare students who know how to identify problems and solutions, work in teams, communicate well, and know how to evaluate their potential in mathematical creativity. In this article the author will discuss the definition of creativity, procedures for assessing mathematical creativity, as well as the issues and prospects of creativity in mathematics teaching and learning. The discussion will take into account aspirations for national development in the 21st century and the implications for teacher education.

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An emerging technological society and economy makes mathematical knowledge and creativity both essential and advantageous for students as they position themselves to join the workforce. In Malaysia, cultivating a mathematically competent and creative workforce depends on the concomitant improvement of mathematical achievement among students in order to possess the mathematical knowledge to produce, use, and manipulate new technologies. In secondary mathematics, this would mean that the order and treatment of most topics would need to change. Definition of Creativity and Assessment of Mathematical Creativity Literature shows there are numerous ways to express and define creativity. Some people refer to creativity as a special kind of thinking, while others refer to the generation of products. There is yet to be one definition of creativity acceptable to everyone. However, several experts on creativity generally agree on the five phases of the creative process, namely (a) Preparation phase - acquiring skills, sensing and denning a problem; (b) Concentration phase - focusing intensely on the problem; (c) Incubation phase - withdrawing from the problem; (d) Illumination phase - the stage involving the emergence of an idea; and (e) Elaboration phase - testing out the idea (Guilford, 1975). Torrance (1984) denned creativity as a process of becoming sensitive to problems. He described four components for assessing individual creativity, namely: (a) fluency as the ability to produce a large number of ideas; (b) flexibility as the ability to produce a variety of ideas; (c) elaboration as the ability to develop an idea; and (d) originality as the ability to produce unusual ideas. Creativity has been denned as the ability to produce new things or new knowledge (Simonton, 2000) or the ability to produce something effective and novel (Quigley, 1998). Standler (1998) tried to differentiate between creativity and intelligence as that between a creative person and an intelligent person; the intelligent person has the ability to learn and to think, while a creative person does things that have never been done before. Healy (1994) gave her definition of creativity as the ability to generate, to approach problems in any field from fresh perspectives. All children are potentially gifted and creative in delightfully individual ways. Similarly, Schifter (1999) defined creativity as the ability to take existing objects and combine them in different ways for new purposes. Thus, creativity is the action of combining previously uncombined elements. The Oxford English Dictionary (1995) describes creativity as "being imaginative and inventive, bringing into existence, making, originating". So the word creativity seems to describe change that can generate novel ideas. It is the capacity to get ideas, especially original, inventive and novel ideas. According to Torrance and Goff (1990) academic creativity is a process of thinking about, learning and producing information in school subjects such as science, mathematics and history. They acknowledged the difficulty in agreeing on a precise definition. Nevertheless, when we say the word creativity, everyone senses a special excitement. Children prefer to learn in creative ways rather than just memorizing information provided by a teacher. They also learn better and sometimes faster. The creative mind always has the ability to relate to imaginative activity; being imaginative is having the potential of interpreting something in a rather unusual way.

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In terms of teaching children in school, Cropley (1992) gave the process-based definition of creativity as the capacity to get ideas. Creative ideas are especially original, inventive and novel. Likewise, Higgins (1994) defined creativity as "the process of generating something new that has value". He also linked creativity to innovation and defined innovation is "a creation that has a significant value". Thus, much emphasis has been put on generating ideas that are novel and worthwhile. One of the characteristics of the so-called creative mind lies in the ability to think imaginatively. Being imaginative is having the potential of interpreting something in a rather unusual way. Craft (2000) introduced possibility thinking as a core element in creativity. Possibility thinking means refusing to be puzzled by a problem, instead being imaginative in finding a way around it. This is very useful and appropriate especially when dealing with mathematical problems. Many new ideas can be generated in various fields. They can be in art, music, design, mathematics, science, problem solving, and so on. The^above discussionriias shown there is no single accepted definition of mathematical creativity. The wide variety of definitions and characteristics has created challenges in the identification and development of mathematical creativity. Kohler (1997) claimed that the inadequate success of students in mathematics might be due to lack of creative approaches in teaching and learning. Creativity-enriched mathematical problems can be developed to assess mathematical creativity. Evans (1964) identified three aspects that elicit creative thinking in mathematics. These are fluency, flexibility and originality. These parameters are used for assessing general creativity in Torrance's (1966) general divergent production tests. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) (Torrance, 1974) have frequently been utilized to assess children's creative thinking. Fluency refers to the number of ideas generated, flexibility to the shifts in approaches, and novelty to the originality of the ideas generated. The three components can be adapted and applied in the domain of mathematical creativity. The fluency score is the total number of relevant responses made, the flexibility score is the number of different methods or categories of ideas, while the originality score is based on the number of unusual, unique or infrequent ideas. Students' responses to mathematical creativity problems can be assigned by fluency and originality scores (Prouse, 1967). Fluency may be awarded by counting the number of acceptable responses made. Duplicate responses are to be eliminated. The originality score is obtained by giving weight for correct responses within a range of percentage by students giving the same response (Prouse, 1967). For example, a weight of one (1) is assigned to a common response given by 25 percent to 50 percent of the students. In order to assess students' mathematical creativity, it is necessary to select suitable creativity-enriched mathematical problems rather than routine problems. A creativityenriched mathematical problem is one that can be solved by various approaches and permits many possible answers. Torrance (1982) argued that tasks requiring generation of a variety of possible solutions could stimulate more creative thinking than tasks that need only one correct response or answer.

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Teaching and Learning of Mathematical Creativity Mathematics relies on logic and creativity, and it is pursued both for a variety of practical purposes and for its intrinsic interest. The essence of mathematics lies in its beauty and its intellectual challenge. Learning to know our creative ability is one of the most significant aspects of our life, for everything we do is affected by our thinking abilities. The teaching and learning of mathematics involves the use of creativity and thinking skills. Mathematical skills extend beyond the ability to calculate; they encompass reasoning, creativity, problem-solving, analyzing and many other skills. These skills involve higher level cognitive processing. Mathematics is used every day by people to identify problems, solve problems and communicate the solutions to others. Mathematics pervades almost every aspect of our lives. Hence students who learn mathematics well are better prepared for a future in which mathematics is commonplace. Malaysia, like many nations, is cognizant of the need to develop creative students (Ministry of Education, 2001). Schools need to prepare students who know how to identify a problem and its solution, students who are creative, able to communicate well, and know how to evaluate progress and learning (Meissner, 2000; Ministry of Education, 1997). When learning mathematics, students are required to be thoughtful and creative, and are expected to be aware of their own cognition in order to monitor their own learning, as they participate actively and constructively to learn with understanding. Creativity in the teaching and learning of mathematics helps students make sense of the world around them and find meaning in the physical world. They learn to reason, to connect ideas, and to think logically. However, typical school practices assume that students must be told what to do and how to do it. In most mathematics classrooms, mathematics is taught to students as if it is a complete and unchangeable body of knowledge, with all rules and procedures. Mathematics is actually a changing and growing body of knowledge. Students need to see how mathematics was developed, and realize that creative individuals shaped the body of mathematical knowledge. However, it seems that students learning mathematics still rely too much on routine processes and algorithms. Less emphasis is placed on creative ways of expressing ideas and displaying mathematical solutions. However, there are teachers who present their students with the appropriate challenges and these teachers have observed that their students are able to invent their own methods and arrive at more creative and confident approaches in solving problems. Probably no one is likely to believe in this possibility unless they have had an opportunity to see children actually do it. Hutcheson (2001) put forward two ancient problems that can be used to prompt students to think broadly and creatively. The first one relates to trisecting of an angle into three equal parts and the other relates to dividing a circle into any number of equal parts. As Craft (2000) had pointed out, activities that generate more than one conjecture provide more opportunities for mathematical creativity. In other words, students are encouraged to use various approaches to tackle creativity-enriched mathematical problems. Tanner and Jones (2000) suggested students should be given more opportunities to meet an appropriate range of unfamiliar problems. These include practical tasks, investigations in real life and within mathematics itself. Furthermore, these problems

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must be sufficiently open to allow for selecting one strategy from many, and flexibility in using different approaches. Fostering Mathematical Creativity in the Classroom Most of the time, there are many correct approaches leading to solution of a given mathematical problem. In order to achieve this, mathematically rich thinking skills are required. With the skills, students can understand ideas better, discover relationships between ideas and solve problems that involve the ideas. Laycock (1970) described mathematical creativity as an ability to analyze a given problem in many ways, observe patterns, see likenesses and differences, produce multiple ideas and decide upon a suitable method to tackle unfamiliar mathematical situations. Balka (1974) outlined different criteria for describing mathematical creativity. These criteria were selected hy a panel of distinguished educators. All the criteria have been identified as checking creative ability in mathematics. These include: the ability to formulate hypotheses in a mathematical situation; the ability to determine mathematical patterns in a mathematical situation; the ability to break from stereotype established mind sets; the ability to consider and evaluate unusual mathematical ideas, to think through their consequences for a mathematical situation, sensing what is missing from a mathematical situation and to ask questions that will enable one to fill in the missing mathematical information; and the ability to split general mathematical problems into specific sub-problems. The concern about mathematical creativity is the ability to generate ideas from given information. Thus it is appropriate that students should at least be given the opportunity to examine a wide variety of enrichment problems in mathematics. By providing divergent responses in unconventional questions and other problem-solving experiences, mathematical creativity can be explored to the fullest. As a mathematics educator, the author noticed that learning mathematics comes easily for some students, while others struggle every step of the way. However, the main concern of the author was for the group of students who exhibit anger, anxiety, alienation or powerlessness while attending a mathematics class. These feelings will definitely hinder students' creativity. When students were struggling with motivation they experienced a range of negative feelings including anger, rebellion, anxiety, frustration, and helplessness. Some students who felt unmotivated to do required tasks demonstrated signs of anger and rebellion because they felt they were denied the opportunity for self-determination. Some become aware of their desire for autonomy. Lack of motivation is also associated with feelings of incompetence and anxiety. Anxiety has been recognized as negatively related to intrinsic motivation. Students who felt anxious and were less competent also experienced lack of control over outcomes, leading to a sense of helplessness which then impairs learning, performance and creativity. Torrance (1984) denned math anxiety as "the panic, helplessness, paralysis, and mental disorganization that arises among some people when they are required to solve a mathematical problem." Math anxiety has been called an illness related to an emotional and cognitive dread of mathematics. Motivating students towards learning mathematics is very much related to reducing math anxiety and fostering creativity.

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Most math anxiety has its roots in the teachers and teaching of mathematics. Teachers' conceptions about mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning determine the type of instruction and classroom culture. Is mathematics all about learning how to compute and practising rules over and over again? Is teaching mathematics enough with just well planned lectures? Teachers cannot just teach for the sake of academic achievement only. It is the teachers' responsibility to address the emotional aspects as well. Teachers have to be aware of the power of motivation, self-esteem and beliefs in one's ability that interfere with the learning of mathematics. A bad experience with a mathematics teacher can cause math anxiety. It could be verbal, for instance, such a statement as "You can't even solve this simple problem?" or it can be physical, for example caning a student for every mistake he makes while solving a problem. Math anxiety is also caused by lack of confidence when working with mathematical situations (Steen, 1989). The role of the teacher is to build that self-confidence while refining the skills needed for success. Teachers sometimes say that students either have or lack the ability to learn mathematics. A student who has had a painfully negative experience in mathematics often actually has the ability, but it is simply masked in anxiety. The teacher's task is to help the students to overcome math anxiety to get rid of this baggage and develop positive thinking towards creativity. Steen (1989) listed the following practices for reducing math anxiety, namely: make math relevant; characterize math as being a human endeavor; emphasize the importance of original quality thinking rather than manipulation of formulas; remove the importance of ego; allow for different social approaches; accommodate different learning styles; and design experiences so that students feel positive about themselves and become creative. Most students see mathematics as being all about numbers, manipulation of numbers, and learning procedures through drill and practice. Students also see that mathematics is all about right answers and only one correct way of solving problems. They see the mathematics teacher as the organizer and presenter of information providing examples for the students to duplicate. Teachers should help the students to see mathematics with new eyes. The essential role of a teacher is to guide the students to identify mathematics learning as investigation and interaction to construct knowledge. Learning mathematics through active participation triggers interest in students. Observing peers being motivated will influence the others to think they might like it too. The mathematics classroom should provide students with opportunities to use mathematics to explain the world around them rather than to obscure it. A meaningful approach in teaching mathematics must fully integrate mathematical ideas, concepts and systems of the surroundings into the everyday life of the classroom. Instruction and pedagogy in a mathematics classroom should lead the students to explore, discover mathematical concepts on their own and become creative (Laycock, 1970; Simonton, 2000). A focus on collaborative construction of meaning also supports students' creativity. The teacher's conceptions of the nature of mathematics and the teaching and learning of mathematics decides the kind of activities planned for the classroom. Some teachers, while reasonably confident about teaching computation and measuring skills, feel very threatened and insecure at the thought of leaving the mathematics text to introduce

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investigation and creativity. Teaching mathematics should involve guiding students through discovering and exploring their own thinking. Working collaboratively in small groups in constructing mathematical knowledge helps increase understanding and reduce math anxiety and encourages mathematical creativity (Cropley, 1992; Simonton, 2000). Students' creativity is also influenced by a responsive classroom culture. A deeply responsive classroom culture alleviates motivational struggles and promotes students' perceptions of self-determination, and thus their ownership of their own learning agenda. Teachers' responsiveness and empathic understandings of students' perceptions are well described by the following phrases: supportive, caring, understanding, accessible, mutual trust and respect, listening to and respecting diverse opinions, explaining things, not telling all the answers, fun, humorous, enthusiastic, sharing interest, holding high expectations, and giving special feedback (Cropley, 1992; Laycock, 1970; Torrance & Goff, 1990). Differences such as children's ability and interests, their social interaction and personalities and even the weather, wiH combine to create the learning atmosphere of that class at that moment in time. Teachers should continuously adapt, change, add to and even abandon the prepared lesson plans as they assess the suitability of the work. The ability to capitalize on the unexpected and to turn it into creative and enjoyable learning is one of the marks of a good and creative teacher. For the students to feel creative in mathematics they should believe they are good at it. The teaching strategy should develop positive and realistic self-concept among the students. The classroom should foster a mathematics community that thrives on conjecturing, inventing and problem solving that builds mathematical confidence in students. Teachers wield tremendous power over a student's creativity. Success in mathematics for many students is related to how the teachers make them feel in class. A responsive classroom culture will facilitate students' adaptive learning processes. The learning environment should support the creativity processes of those who are undergoing motivational struggles as well as those who are deeply engaged in mathematics learning. Creativity and Technology in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics Technology has now become an integral part of our Malaysian educational system. This usage is increasing rapidly and has also generated new challenges. Technology is used in the teaching and learning of mathematics for enriching and improving the teaching and learning conditions. Torrance and Goff (1990) define creative learning as a natural healthy human process that occurs when people are curious and excited. Creative thinking and learning involve the ability to sense problems, fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Indeed, with technology, students are empowered with all the tools necessary for promoting all aspects of creativity. Integrating technology into mathematics instruction has been notably discussed, pointing to the inevitable interest and impact of technology on creativity in mathematics. It has been shown that working with the appropriate computer software can pack a large amount of graphing experience into a relatively short amount of time, enabling students to deal with more graphs in class. Learning is an active process; however, a lot of commonly used teaching strategies place students in passive and receptive roles. Technology has the ability to enrich the content of students'

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learning experiences, provide greater flexibility, and give students a more self-reliant role in their own education. If students are to be motivated and their enthusiasm enhanced, it is important that instruction be flexible enough to create room for creativity. Using technology, the teacher can effectively address the challenge of organizing mathematics instruction such that it attracts and develops the abilities of the greatest number of students possible (NCTM, 2000). Students can thus visualize mathematical concepts which are difficult to comprehend without computers. In a typical classroom, technology would be able to provide easy and clear illustration, better than those a teacher could make without technology. Let us look at the example given in Figure 1. Graphing calculators would be able to help students visualize the given graph better. With the help of graphing calculators, students can creatively draw the graph, and also see different views of the graph, thus saving teachers' precious and limited time.

According to Simonton (2000) creativity comes more from environmental factors than hereditary factors. Research has also shown that creative people do not like to work in a conventional way. In the mathematics classroom, Cangelosi (1996) has reported that mathematics creativity is displayed by students who think divergently. These are students who generate ideas, conjectures, algorithms, or problem solutions. With technology capabilities, students can visualize mathematical concepts which are difficult to comprehend without technology as in Figure 2. With the help of computers, the teacher can effectively address the challenge of organizing mathematics instruction for promoting creativity. As shown in Figure 2, the student can creatively animate the triangle. Visual representation on a computer screen is more beneficial to the students' understanding compared to diagrams in books. There is no doubt that using a variety of technological tools, such as calculators, computers, and hands-on materials, under the guidance of a skillful teacher, creates a rich mathematical learning environment. Such an environment helps in exposing and preparing students for diversified experiences. This is the exposure necessary for nurturing creativity. Using technology such as computers and graphing calculators, students themselves would be able to creatively draw three dimensional objects, build a concrete image of the object in their minds, and also see different views of the object, thus saving teachers' time. It has been shown that technology can stimulate projects that teach students teamwork, problem solving, and critical thinking, as well as increasing their enthusiasm for learning.

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Figure 2. Visual representation of a triangle with Geometer's Sketchpad The motivation to learn that technology helps to stimulate is vital because Malaysia needs to facilitate the education of smart learners who are aware of their own creativity and capable of working competently and independently in teams in a technology-enabled environment. The Malaysian Smart School reform seeks to transform the traditionally directive univocal environment into a more flexible multi-vocal interactive atmosphere where mathematical knowledge and creativity are thoughtfully explored.

Conclusion The essence of mathematics is thinking creatively, not simply arriving at the one right answer. However, in many typical schools, mathematics courses often focus on what the student does rather than what the student thinks. Traditional assessment to identify the mathematically gifted do not identify or measure creativity but often reward accuracy and speed. These tests only identify students who do well in school mathematics and are computationally fluent, but neglect the creatively talented in mathematics. Simonton (2000) has pointed out that the acquisition of creative potential requires the simultaneous contribution of both nature and nurture. As teachers we have very little or no control over nature, but much can be done in the mathematics classrooms that can nurture the creativity potential of our students. To enhance creativity, it is crucial therefore that we develop qualities such as relevant motivation, engagement, imagination, relative freedom, and independent thinking.

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Students' growth in mathematics involves more than just mastering computational skills. Mathematics talent requires creative application of mathematics in exploring problems, and not merely replicating the works of others. The challenge is to provide an environment of practice and problem solving that stimulates creativity. With the aid of technology, especially computers, instruction can be flexible and adapted to individual needs. Student-teacher interaction and learning are significantly more student-centered, thus creating room for students' optimal creativity. Today's students will live and work in an era dominated by computers, by worldwide communication, and by a global economy. It has been established that good use of computers can empower students to be creative and critical thinkers and better problem solvers (Kaput, 1992; Roblyer, 1989). All students, especially those with potential talent in mathematics, need academic challenge as well as creative opportunities to explore the nature of mathematics and to employ the skills they have developed. While the literature supports the development of mathematical creativity, it also reports that little is being done to identify or develop mathematical creativity in schools today. More research is necessary to develop identification tools so that effectiveness of interventions to encourage creativity can be measured especially in Malaysia. References Balka, D. S. (1974). Creative ability in mathematics. The Arithmetic Teacher, 21,633-636. Cangelosi, J. S. (1996). Teaching mathematics in secondary and middle school: An interactive approach. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Craft, A. (2000). Creativity across the primary curriculum. London: Routledge. Cropley, A. J. (1992). More ways than one, fostering creativity. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Evans, E. W. (1964). Measuring the ability of students to respond in creative mathematical situations at the late elementary and early junior high school level. Dissertation Abstracts, 25,7108. Guilford, J. P. (1975). Varieties of creative giftedness, their measurement and development. Gifted Child Quarterly, 19,107-121. Healy, J. M. (1994). Testing for creativity requires a clear definition of what it is. Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter, 10(12), 1-2. Higgins, M. (1994). 101 creative problem solving techniques. Winter Park, FL: New Management. Hutcheson, T. W. (2001). Dividing any angle into any number of equal parts. Mathematics Teacher, 94(5), 400-405. Kaput, J. J. (1992). Technology and mathematics education. In D. A. Grouws (Ed.). Handbook for research in Mathematics teaching and learning. New York: Macmillan. Kohler, H. (1997). Acting artist-like in the classroom: Modern rational technological world comes to life through the creativity arising from the artistic paradigm of acting. ZDM, 31(2), 187-193.

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Laycock, M. (1970). Creative mathematics at Nueva. The Arithmetic Teacher, 17, 325328. Meissner, H. (2000). Creativity in mathematics education. Yokochi 3 Vortrag Tokyo. Retrieved August 2,2005, from http://www.mcrel.org/products/csmp/frederique/asp Ministry of Education, Malaysia. (1997). Huraian sukatan pelajaran Matematik. Kuala Lumpur: Curriculum Development Centre. Ministry of Education, Malaysia. (2001). Pembangunan pendidikan 2001^2010. Kuala Lumpur: Author. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2000). Standards and principles in School Mathematics. Reston, VA: Author. Noraini Idris. (2006). Pedagogi dalam pendidikan matematik. Kuala Lumpur: Utusan. Oxford English Dictionary (1995). Concise Oxford dictionary (9th ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford UP. Prouse, Hr (r967ri)ecembery. Creatmtynn^choohnathematicsTTWa^emaft'cr^ac/rer, pp.876-879. Quigley, P. (1998). Creativity and computers. Retrieved April 12,2004, from http://erica. net/edo/ED315063 .htm Roblyer, M. D. (1989). The impact of microcomputer-based instruction on teaching and learning: A review of recent research. ERIC Digest. Retrieved May 15,2005, from http://erica.net/edu/ED315063.htm Schifter, L. (1999). Definitions of creativity. Retrieved March 25, 2005, from http:// members .ozemail .com ,au Simonton, D. K. (2000). Creativity: Cognitive, personal, development, and social aspects. American Psychologist, 55(1), 151-158. Standler, R. B. (1998). Creativity in science and engineering. Retrieved August 3, 2005, from http://wwwjbso.com/create.htm Steen, L. (1989). Teaching mathematics for tomorrow's world. Educational Leadership, 47{Y), 18-22. Tanner, H., & Jones, S.(2000). Becoming a successful teacher of mathematics. London: Routledge. Torrance, E. P. (1966). The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Princeton, NJ: Personnel Press. Torrance, E. P. (1974). Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, Figural Form A. Bensenville, IL: Scholastic Testing Service. Torrance, E. P. (1982). Hemisphericity and creative functioning. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 15,29 -37. Torrance, E. P. (1984). Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Bensenville, IL: Scholastic Testing Service. Torrance, E. P., & Goff, K. (1990). Fostering academic creativity in gifted students. ERIC Digest E484. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. 321489.