Nurturing Mathematical Creativity in Schools

• Main Authors: HungLinh Pham, Seokhee Cho
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Turkish Journal of Giftedness and Education 2018-06-01
• Series: Turkish Journal of Giftedness and Education
• Subjects: mathematical creativity; multifaceted; mathematics education; school-level; professional level
• Online Access: http://www.tuzed.org/publications/cilt8/1/documents/tuzed_2018_1_phamcho.pdf

Purpose of the article is to find possible answers on how to best nurture mathematical creativity of students. With the worldwide introduction of mandatory national/state tests and inclusion of diverse students in classrooms, most mathematics teachers lead the mathematical lesson by giving direct instruction on the procedures for math problem solving. Mathematics instructions are focused on getting good scores on tests of performance. To get insights on how to improve our educational practices to nurture mathematical creativity of students, conceptual models and multifaceted nature of mathematical creativity and its development are reviewed. Keeping in mind the need of a balanced development of various components of mathematical creativity, it is necessary to allow problem choices through differentiation of challenge levels of problems and contents, creating safe environment for taking risks, providing opportunities for recognition of mathematical creativity, and providing ill-defined challenging real life problems are suggested.