1 Creativity in learning mathematics

Creativity in learning has become a fashionable concept in recent years. Creativity is partly about allowing students to enjoy learning more and think for themselves. It is also important to prepare students for the jobs of the future. In the future, jobs will rely less and less on doing things mechanistically (as this can be done by computers) and more on problem solving, thinking outside the box and coming up with creative solutions.

It is not always easy to see how school mathematics and textbook practice can be turned into creative learning approaches. This unit aims to give some ideas in this direction. It builds on the perspective of creativity as ‘possibility thinking’ (Aristeidou, 2011), using ‘What if?’ scenarios.

Research has identified a list of teaching and learning features that are involved in possibility thinking in the classroom (Grainger et al., 2007; Craft et al., 2012). These include posing questions, experimenting with ideas, taking risks, playing around and working collaboratively.

The tasks in this unit work on these features.

Pause for thought Think about a time that you felt you have been creative in your thinking. It does not have to be about doing mathematics – it could, for example, be when you were cooking, doing a handicraft, solving a tricky problem at home or thinking about something. What happened? Was there, for example, any questioning, experimenting, playfulness, risk-taking or collaboration involved?