Search for: All records

Fostering mathematical creativity in the classroom requires intentional actions on the part of the instructor. We examine the teaching actions that students in a creativity-based Calculus I course report as contributing to their sense of creativity. Based on interview data, we found the four overall types of teaching actions: Task-Related, Teaching-Centered, Inquiry Teaching, and Holistic Teaching. We discuss subtypes as well as concrete actions, to provide actionable steps practitioners can take to foster students’ creativity. 

In this paper, we describe the student-reported affective outcomes from teaching actions of professors involved in a professional development experience to explicitly value creativity in their Calculus 1 courses. Using the four main teaching themes that emerged (Task-Related, Inquiry Teaching, Teacher-Centered, and Holistic Teaching), we further explored the data for affective outcomes resulting from teaching actions that foster student creativity. We observed five distinct affective outcomes: Enjoyment, Confidence, Comfort, Negative then Positive Feelings, and Negative Feelings. Enjoyment and Confidence were the most reported affective outcomes from the creativity-fostering teaching actions. Particularly, Enjoyment was reported the most from Holistic Teaching and Task-Related teaching actions; Confidence was reported the most from Holistic Teaching actions among all the types. Finally, we offer concrete creativity-based teaching actions that have the capacity to build students’ mathematical enjoyment and confidence. 

Can fostering mathematical creativity explicitly in a calculus I course impact students’ mathematical identity? As a part of a larger research project exploring this question, a quantitative research study was developed to explore six aspects of student mathematical identity along with student perception of creativity-fostering instructor behavior. Analysis of pre- and post-semester survey data indicated that the instruments measuring aspects of student identity had strong reliability and good structure validity. Correlational analysis of the six aspects of student identity provided evidence that students’ views of mathematics as a creative endeavor impacted the formation of self-efficacy in mathematics. The instrument measuring creativity-fostering instruction demonstrated low reliability and internal inconsistencies. Methodological issues related to measuring creativity-fostering instruction and directions for future research studying creativity-fostering and student identity are discussed.