Mathematical Creativity and School Mathematics: Indicators of Mathematical Creativity in Middle School Students

As students progress through the educational system their interest in mathematics diminishes. Yet there is an ever increasing need within the workforce for individuals who possess talent in mathematics. The literature suggests that mathematical talent is most often measured by speed and accuracy of a student’s computation with little emphasis on problem solving and pattern finding and no opportunities for students to work on rich mathematical tasks that require divergent thinking. Such an approach limits the use of creativity in the classroom and reduces mathematics to a set of skills to master and rules to memorize. Doing so causes many children’s natural curiosity and enthusiasm for mathematics to disappear as they get older. Keeping students interested and engaged in mathematics by recognizing and valuing their mathematical creativity may reverse this tendency. The identification of creative potential is challenging. Prior research into the identification of mathematical creativity has focused on the development of measurement instruments. Scoring of these instruments is time consuming and subject to scorer interpretation due to the variety of possible responses. Thus, their use in schools has been very limited, if used at all, since their creation. This study seeks a simpler means to obtain indicators of creative potential in mathematics. Existing instruments, the Creativ