Exploring Creativity in Prospective Mathematics Teachers through Context-Based Posing Numeration Task Design: A Case Study in Mathematics Learning
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Creativity is an essential competency for prospective mathematics teachers if they are to effectively meet the demands of modern education. In mathematics learning, creativity includes the ability to connect concepts, develop new learning methods, and create relevant and interesting materials. One’s attitude can be trained through context-based numeration task activities. The activity requires students to design numeration problems that are based on real situations. This process helps students develop creative thinking skills, such as generating new ideas (fluency), thinking flexibly, and creating original solutions, while also improving their understanding. This study aimed to provide an in-depth description of how prospective mathematics teachers design context-based posing numera tasks design in personal, socio-cultural, and scientific contexts, and to identify the types of creativity that emerge during the process of creating contextual story problems.
Methodology: This study employed a qualitative case study approach to explore how prospective mathematics teachers develop creativity by designing context-based numeracy tasks in mathematics learning. This study included the participation of 32 prospective mathematics student-teachers from the Mathematics Education study program in one of the universities in East Java, Indonesia. Data were collected by having all prospective mathematics teachers collaboratively complete a task in which they designed numeracy problems.
Main Results: The results of this study showed that the average achievement for the creativity indicators was 33.36% for both fluency and flexibility, and 33.33% for originality, based on the mathematical problems submitted by the participants. The analysis shows that 38.1% of the numeracy task designs are based on the context of understanding and application, while 23.8% are oriented toward the reasoning level. Overall, these findings indicate the need to strengthen the creativity and pedagogical competencies of prospective mathematics teachers, especially in terms of generating fluent, varied, and original problem ideas, and in developing problem designs that encourage students' mathematical reasoning.
Discussions: The limited number of numeracy tasks designed at the reasoning level may be due to most prospective mathematics teachers preferring to create problems that are more structured and procedural, rather than those that encourage creative thinking and the development of diverse solution strategies. When the majority of tasks performed by students were still focused on comprehension and application, this showed that the ability to create analytical and reflective tasks was not well developed. In the long run, this attitude could cause students to fail in handling real-world situations that require numeracy-based problem-solving, data analysis, and logical argumentation.
Conclusions: The study found that the limited number of numeracy tasks designed at the reasoning level may be due to most prospective mathematics teachers preferring to create structured, procedure-based problems rather than tasks that encourage creative thinking and the development of diverse solution strategies. Therefore, educators needed to provide strategies in mathematics learning to train student-teachers in designing tasks that could explore the creativity of students by including context-based numeracy. These strategies should be the main focus in the education curriculum of prospective mathematics teachers
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
Ayvaz, Ü., & Durmuş, S. (2021). Fostering mathematical creativity with problem posing activities: An action research with gifted students. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 40(May), 100846. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2021.100846
Chang, I. (2023). Early numeracy and literacy skills and their influences on fourth-grade mathematics achievement: a moderated mediation model. Large-Scale Assessments in Education, 11, 18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40536-023-00168-6
Creswell, J. W. (2016). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design (Fourth). SAGE Publications.
Díez-Palomar, J., Ramis-Salas, M., Močnik, I., Simonič, M., & Hoogland, K. (2023). Challenges for numeracy awareness in the 21st century: making visible the invisible. Frontiers in Education, 8(November), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1295781
Elgrably, H., & Leikin, R. (2021). Creativity as a function of problem-solving expertise: posing new problems through investigations. ZDM - Mathematics Education, 53(4), 891-904. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-021-01228-3
Emre-Akdoǧan, E. (2023). Examining mathematical creativity of prospective mathematics teachers through problem posing. Teaching Mathematics and Its Applications, 42(2), 150-169. https://doi.org/10.1093/teamat/hrac006
Giblin, F., Butler, D., & Kingston, M. (2022). Numeracy and digital learning: use of digital technologies as tools for numeracy development. A review of the literature. Department of Education (Ireland). Institute of Education.
Herlinawati, H., Marwa, M., Ismail, N., Junaidi, Liza, L. O., & Situmorang, D. D. B. (2024). The integration of 21st century skills in the curriculum of education. Heliyon, 10(15), e35148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e35148
Hovik, E. K., & Nolan, K. (2024). Pre-service teachers' understandings of exploratory task design in mathematics: from GeoGebra task design to the 8th grade student. Cogent Education, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2024.2421088
Kim, D. J., Bae, S. C., Choi, S. H., Kim, H. J., & Lim, W. (2019). Creative character education in mathematics for prospective teachers. Sustainability (Switzerland), 11(6), 1730. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11061730
Ku, H., Education, N., & Erdo, F. (2024). Examination of creative thinking skills and critical thinking dispositions of pre- service mathematics teachers. International Journal of Progressive Education, 20(5), 38-55. https://doi.org/10.29329/ijpe.2024.1063.4
Leikin, R. (2023). Introduction to mathematical challenges for all unraveling the intricacy of mathematical challenge. In Leikin R. (ed.), Mathematical challenges for all (pp. 1-15). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18868-8_1
Li, Y., Kim, M., & Palkar, J. (2022). Using emerging technologies to promote creativity in education: A systematic review. International Journal of Educational Research Open, 3(December 2021), 100177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2022.100177
Momdjian, L., Manegre, M., & Gutiérrez-Colón, M. (2024). Bridging the digital competence gap: A comparative study of preservice and in-service teachers in Lebanon using the DigCompEdu framework. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 30, 655–683. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-024-09794-7
OECD. (2022). PISA 2021 Creative Thinking Framework. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/6dd731d0-en
Papadopoulos, I., Patsiala, N., Baumanns, L., & Rott, B. (2022). Multiple approaches to problem posing: Theoretical considerations regarding its definition, conceptualisation, and implementation. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 12(1), 13-34. https://doi.org/10.26529/cepsj.878
Pramuditya, S. A., Noto, M. S., & Azzumar, F. (2022). Characteristics of students' mathematical problem solving abilities in open-ended-based virtual reality game learning. Infinity Journal, 11(2), 255-272. https://doi.org/10.22460/infinity.v11i2.p255-272
Rawlings, B. S., & Cutting, S. J. (2024). Linking disparate strands: A critical review of the relationship between creativity and education. Educational Psychology Review, 36, 135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09973-z
Reyes, J., & Andrade, R. (2024). The Mathematics Self-Belief and Mathematical Creativity of Pre-Service Teachers : The Mediating Role of Problem-Solving Skills. TWIST, 19(2), 398-404.
Saefudin, A. A., Wijaya, A., & Dwiningrum, S. I. A. (2023). Mapping research trends in mathematical creativity in mathematical instructional practices: A bibliometric analysis. Journal of Pedagogical Research, 7(4), 439-458. https://doi.org/10.33902/JPR.202322691
Sari, Y. M., Kohar, A. W., El Milla, Y. I., Fiangga, S., & Rahayu, D. S. (2024). Aligning numeracy task design with SDG goals: Nutrition facts as a context for prospective mathematics teachers' problem posing. Journal on Mathematics Education, 15(1), 191-206. https://doi.org/10.22342/jme.v15i1.pp191-206
Siller, H. S., Vorhölter, K., & Just, J. (2024). Problem posing as a way of promoting individual mathematical thinking in STEM contexts - The case of climate change. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 23, 2113–2133. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-024-10518-7
Singh, P., Hoon, T. S., Md Nasir, A., Md Ramly, A., Md Rasid, S., & Meng, C. C. (2021). Card game as a pedagogical tool for numeracy skills development. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 10(2), 693-705. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v10i2.20722
Thornhill-Miller, B., Camarda, A., Mercier, M., Burkhardt, J. M., Morisseau, T., Bourgeois-Bougrine, S., Vinchon, F., El Hayek, S., Augereau-Landais, M., Mourey, F., Feybesse, C., Sundquist, D., & Lubart, T. (2023). Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration: Assessment, Certification, and Promotion of 21st Century Skills for the Future of Work and Education. Journal of Intelligence, 11(3), 54. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11030054
Vale, I., & Barbosa, A. (2024). Exploring the creative potential of mathematical tasks in teacher education. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 19(4), em0790. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/15075
Vong, S. A., & Kaewurai, W. (2017). Instructional model development to enhance critical thinking and critical thinking teaching ability of trainee students at regional teaching training center in Takeo province, Cambodia. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, 38(1), 88-95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kjss.2016.05.002
Widodo, S., Katminingsih, Y., & Agus Sulistyono, B. (2023). Characteristics of creative mathematics teachers in posing contextual mathematics problems. International Journal of Research and Review, 10(2), 41-48. https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20230208
Wijayanti, P., Siswono, T. Y. E., Juniati, D., Abadi, A., & Hartono, S. (2022). How do mathematics teachers design tasks to assess students' creative thinking ability?. Jurnal Riset Pendidikan Matematika, 9(2), 137-146. https://doi.org/10.21831/jrpm.v9i2.55122
Zappatore, M. (2023). Incorporating collaborative and active learning strategies in the design and deployment of a master course on computer-assisted scientific translation. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 29(1), 253-308. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-023-09679-1
