Teachers' Conceptions of Mathematical Creativity

TEACHERS' CONCEPTIONS OF
MATHEMATICAL CREATIVITY

FOONG PUI YEE

Abstract. How do teachers who are delivering the curriculum

conceive of mathematical creativity? The purpose of this survey
is to explore how “mathematical creativity” is seen by a group of
teachers. A person’s assumption and conception of what
constitutes a thing or an idea could be socially significant and
real in their consequence of actions or behaviours. The results
painted a positive picture for mathematics education where
majority of teachers conceived of mathematical creativity as
embedded in the activities of mathematics lessons that have
problem solving as a focus.

Key words: teachers’ conception, mathematical creativity,

problem solving

INTRODUCTION

In education it is an edict that all students should be given opportunities to

develop their potentials to the fullest. If educators are of the view that creativity
exists as a potential in every individual, then fostering creativity in all aspects of
learning should be part of a tradition in the educational process of a student. So
what is creativity and what should teachers foster? Among the many theories,
Runco (2004)’s theory of “personal creativity” is more appropriate for the
educational development of individuals as it focuses on the individual and in
particular on his or her interpretative capacities, choices, decisions, judgements
and intentions. His view is that seeing creativity in strictly objective terms is

ICME 11, Mexico, 2008 13

3
 Pui Yee Foong

problematic as very often the emphasis is on the creative product that has being
judged as useful and original based on some social consensus views. The process
which generated the product and the individual’s perspectives are overlooked.
This integrated view of creativity which consider the processes and personal
properties would be more agreeable with educators where fostering the
individual is a given. Cropley (1997) in his review on promoting creativity in the
classroom identified ten cognitive aspects of creativity that teachers should strive
to promote in students (p 92):

1. Possession of a fund of general knowledge.

2. Knowledge of one or more special fields.
3. An active imagination.
4. Ability to recover, discover or invent problems.
5. Skill at seeing connections, overlaps, similarities and logical implications.
6. Skill at making remote associations, accepting primary processes and
forming new Gestalts.
7. Ability to think up many ways to solve problems.
8. A preference for accommodating rather than assimilating.
9. Ability and willingness to evaluate their own work.
10. Ability to communicate their results to other people.

The idea of encouraging mathematical creativity implicitly through these aims is

clearly attractive to curriculum developers and teachers. So how do the
teachers who are delivering the curriculum conceive of mathematical
creativity and its role in the learning objectives of the mathematics syllabus?
How significant are their conceptions to their classroom practices? For the
purpose of this discussion paper, the author presents the results of a small
survey among pre-service and in-service teachers on their conceptions of
mathematical creativity and its implication for study of classroom practices.

SURVEY ON TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS

It is important to recognize that the key figures responsible for changing the
ways in which mathematics is taught and learned in the classroom are the
teachers. How curricula innovation such as promoting creativity in the classroom
is implemented depends in turn on teachers' conception of the innovation and the
13 DG 9: Promoting Creativity for All Students in
4 Mathematics Education, Section 2
 Teachers' Conceptions of Mathematical Creativity

mathematics they are teaching. The purpose of this survey was to explore how
“mathematical creativity” was conceived by a group of teachers. The focus was
on what was seen as “mathematical creativity” by the pre-service teachers and
experienced teachers. A person’s assumption and conception of what constitutes
a thing or an idea could be socially significant and real in their consequence of
actions or behaviours. Like the term “problem solving”, there were differing
definitions and how teachers interpreted and conceived of them would lead to
different activities in the mathematics classroom. In this survey, the teachers
were posed this question: “What do you see in your mind’s eye when I say
“mathematical creativity?”. They were not required to define it. They were
supposed to write down what they saw as mathematical creativity and their
answers would rely on their conception rather than perception. The process of
conception would occur at a high cognitive level as what one could see should be
drawn from one’s previous experiences. Not everyone would necessarily see the
same thing. By capturing different images of “mathematical creativity” from
teachers-in-training to experienced teachers would contribute to a deeper
reflection on different aspects as to how creativity could be promoted in the
teaching and learning of mathematics.

Twenty pre-service teachers doing their Postgraduate Diploma in Education and

twenty in-service teachers doing their Master in Education degree participated in
this survey. Their responses were analysed and categorised. Some expressions of
their conceptions of “mathematical creativity” were:

“To use different methods to solve the same question and being able to
explain the rationale behind it”

“The ability to see Maths from a different angle. Solving maths problems
unconventionally”

“Coming up with ideas that most people would not have”

“Extension of mathematics learning beyond the classroom, …without use

of textbook”

“It is more on the teacher facilitating the learning and students

discovering the wonders of mathematics themselves”

Some teachers contributed more than one statement of conceptions. The teachers’
conceptions were categorised into two perspectives: the learner’s perspective and
the teacher’s perspective. In the learner’s perspective, mathematical creativity

ICME 11, Mexico, 2008 13

5
 Pui Yee Foong

was seen from what students did in mathematics learning, while the teachers’
perspective was seen from what teachers did to promote it. Each statement of
conceptions in the learner’s perspective was parsed into three components: the
Action, the Context and the Creativity. The Action indicated what students did
with illustrative verbs like solve, see, create, discover, learn etc. The Context
indicated the situation of the action such as the problems, ideas, patterns,
concepts etc., and the “Creativity” indicated the adjective or phrases that
respondent had used to describe the event as creative. Table 1[Appendix A]
highlighted some of these conceptions that would form a picture of how
“mathematical creativity” played out in the perspective of the learners. Table 2
[Appendix A] showed the actions teachers took and the context that they used to
promote mathematical creativity in the learners. Each table also presented the
frequency of occurrences that the pre-service and in-service teachers expressed
their conceptions.

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

The picture that emerged from the teachers’ conceptions of mathematical

creativity showed that majority of them saw it as an event where students solve
problems that could be in the context of mathematics challenge problems,
higher-order thinking tasks, or investigative tasks in different, non-conventional,
unique or in ways that were not taught before. The concept of mathematical
creativity for these teachers was closely related to mathematical problem solving
where the creativity was found in the process of the solution. The creativity as
described in the ways that problems were solved seemed to belong to the
individuals as terms like “unique to the person”, “personal touch” and “not
taught before” were used in some conceptions. More pre-service teachers
conceived of mathematical creativity in this aspect than the experienced teachers.
More of the experienced teachers than pre-service teachers conceived of
mathematical creativity as creating, constructing or coming up with new,
different or out-of-the-box ideas or patterns which could be interpreted as
attributes of the learners. Two teachers saw mathematical creativity as in a
person who thought like a master chess player or who applied multiple
intelligence. As for students learning or discovering concepts and solution
strategies, the creativity element was attributed to environmental factors such as
beyond classroom, related to real-life, integrated with Arts or without use of
textbooks. Three pre-service teachers conceived of mathematical creativity in
students’ ability to explain, reflect and justify their ideas or solutions through
13 DG 9: Promoting Creativity for All Students in
6 Mathematics Education, Section 2
 Teachers' Conceptions of Mathematical Creativity

sharing in group work. Table 2 showed more experienced teachers’ conceptions

in the perspective of the teacher and teaching than the pre-service teachers. They
conceived of teachers explaining concepts or facilitating solution strategies
through use of games or ICT. Teachers taught without the use of textbook and
related concepts to real-life. Teachers crafted open-ended problems. Teachers
assessed with alternative methods and teachers catered to different learning
styles. These were images of what teachers did to promote mathematical
creativity in the students.

To summarise this small survey, the conceptions of majority of the teachers

reflect common beliefs that mathematics is about problem solving and problem
solving is a creative process. However, it would seem that giving students
problems to solve as the means for mathematical creativity maybe seen to be too
narrow a conception. Often in many mathematics classrooms, when students are
given problems to solve, it is usually within very familiar context for applying
techniques that have been taught. It will be worrisome if teachers were to think
that creativity is only found in those students who have it in them to think or
solve problems unique to themselves or in ways that were not taught before.
However, there are teachers who believe that creating or posing problems is also
a creative problem solving process. Mathematical creativity is not just about
what pupils do but also what teachers do as reflected in some of the experienced
teachers’ conceptions of what teachers can do to offer opportunities for student
creativity. These conceived actions of the teachers such as teachers explain,
facilitate, assess, craft and cater to different learning styles can be found as
activities embedded in regular classrooms. If the premise that one’s conceptions
of learning and teaching can evoke behaviours which make the conceptions a
reality is true, then mathematical creativity like problem solving will be an
integral part of everyday mathematics activity. In this way teachers will be
mindful in choosing, adapting or creating problems that would offer scope for
creativity whereby students are encouraged to be creative with the tools available
in them.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

ICME 11, Mexico, 2008 13

7
 Pui Yee Foong

This small scale survey paints a very positive picture for mathematics education
where majority of teachers conceive of mathematical creativity as embedded
in the activities of mathematics lessons that have problem solving as the
focus. Although the notion of teachers deliberately or unknowingly inhibiting
student mathematical creativity maybe unacceptable, there are evidences to
show that such incidents have occurred and have consequences. In a study on
general creativity education, Tan (2004), finds that teachers’ self-reports of
classroom experiences pertaining to enhancing creativity shows distinct
discrepancies between their understandings of knowing what is good and
their act of doing what may work. She learns that teachers seldom conduct
learning activities they believe could enhance creativity. Instead they spend
most of their instructional time carrying out routine and teacher-centred
activities. Teachers attributes their inconsistent behaviours to reasons such as
insufficient curricular time, inadequate support and low self-confidence in
managing such activities.

13 DG 9: Promoting Creativity for All Students in

8 Mathematics Education, Section 2
 Teachers' Conceptions of Mathematical Creativity

In particular to the mathematics classroom, there is reason to believe that

teachers’ conceptions of mathematical problem solving could also have
constraints on their effort to promote creativity in this aspect. For many
teachers in Singapore they believe that they do teach “problem solving” in
mathematics all the time especially through mathematics word problems and
the use of targeted heuristics for certain challenging problems. This
conception of problem solving can be viewed from Schroeder & Lester’s
(1989) interpretation of the different roles of problem solving: teaching for
problem solving, teaching about problem solving, and teaching via problem
solving. According to Foong (2002) teachers in Singapore from primary to
secondary level used problems for its role in teaching for problem solving
where the emphasis is on learning mathematics for the main purpose of
applying it to solve problems after learning a particular topic. There is very
little scope for creativity if students were just learning to use taught
techniques. Explicit heuristics instructions as teaching about problem solving
are being practiced in the mathematics classroom where emphasis is on
teaching the heuristics recommended in the syllabus and targeting them at
certain non-routine problems. Future work will need to equip teachers
with a clearer picture of these different roles of problem solving especially
the role of teaching mathematics via problem solving that used problem-
based investigative and open-ended tasks. Open-ended problem-based and
problem posing activities do allow for student creative problem solving.
More classroom studies should be conducted to observe teacher practices for
their alignment of their conceptions of problem solving and creativity in
mathematics.

REFERENCES

Cropley, A.J., (1997). Fostering creativity in the classroom. In M.A.Runco (ed.).

The creativity research handbook. Vol.1. pp83-115. NJ: Hampton Press.
Foong, P.Y. (2002). Roles of Problem to Enhance Pedagogical Practices in the
Singapore Classrooms. The Mathematics Educator. Vol. 6, No.2, 15-31.
Runco, M. (2004). Personal creativity and culture. In L. Sing, H.H. Hui, & Y.C.
Ng. (eds.). Creativity when east meets west. pp. 9-23. Singapore: World
Scientific.
Schroeder, T.L. & Lester, F.K. (1989). Developing understanding in mathematics
via problem solving. In P.R. Trafton & A.P. Shulte (Eds.), New directions
for elementary school mathematics: 1989 yearbook. Reston, Va: National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
ICME 11, Mexico, 2008 13
9
 Pui Yee Foong

Tan, A. G. (2004). Singapore’s creativity education. In L. Sing, H.H. Hui, & Y.C.
Ng. (eds.). Creativity when east meets west. pp. 277-305. Singapore:
World Scientific.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Foong Pui Yee, Ph.D.

Mathematics and Mathematics Education Academic Group
National Institute of Education
Nanyang Technological University
1, Nanyang Walk
Singapore 637616
Tel: (65)67903913
Email: puiyee.foong@nie.edu.sg

14 DG 9: Promoting Creativity for All Students in

0 Mathematics Education, Section 2
 Teachers' Conceptions of Mathematical Creativity

APPENDIX A
Table 1: Teachers’ conceptions of mathematical creativity in the learners’ perspective
Pre-service In-service
teachers’: teachers’
frequency frequency
Action Context Creativity
count of count of
conceptions conceptions
New, Differently,
Problems
Non-conventionally,
(Challenge,
alternative,
investigation,
Solve/ Find Uniquely, Not taught 14 9
higher-order,
before, Variety,
open-ended)
More than 1 way,
Simply & efficiently
Create/ Ideas, New way, different,
Construct/ knowledge, alternative, fun, out-
3 5
Design/comin games, puzzles of-the-box, variety,
g up with New things individual touch
Unconventionally,
See/ Visual/
uniquely, like a master
Think/ Ideas, pattern 2 3
chess player; multiple-
Analyse
intelligence,
Mathematics Relate to real-life,
Learn/Discov concepts, integrate with Art,
4 4
er/Connect solution beyond classroom,
strategies, without textbook
Explain/Refle Concepts/ Interactively;
3 0
ct/ Justify solutions groupwork

Table 2: Teachers’ conceptions of mathematical creativity in the teachers’ perspective

Pre-service In-service
teachers’: teachers’
Action Context frequency count frequency count
of conceptions of conceptions
Teach/Explain/ Facilitate Concepts/ Solutions 3 6
Use Games/ ICT 2 2
Problems, open-
Craft/ Construct 0 1
ended problems
Assess Alternative methods 0 2
Cater to different pupils Learning styles 0 2

ICME 11, Mexico, 2008 14

1