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Mathematical Creativity: A Combination of Domain‐general Creative and Domain‐specific Mathematical Skills
Author(s) -
Schoevers Eveline M.,
Kroesbergen Evelyn H.,
Kattou Maria
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the journal of creative behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.896
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 2162-6057
pISSN - 0022-0175
DOI - 10.1002/jocb.361
Subject(s) - creativity , relation (database) , domain (mathematical analysis) , mathematics education , mathematical problem , creativity technique , computer science , psychology , mathematics , social psychology , mathematical analysis , database
Creativity is an understudied topic in elementary school mathematics research. Nevertheless, we argue that creativity plays an important role in mathematics, but that more research is needed to understand this relation. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate this relation, specifically between domain‐general creativity, domain‐specific mathematical creativity, and mathematical ability. Measures for these constructs were administered to 342 Dutch fourth graders. In order to examine the nature of the relation between creativity and mathematics, two competing models were tested, using Structural Equation Modeling. The results indicated that models in which general creativity and mathematical ability both predict mathematical creativity fitted the data better than models in which mathematical and general creativity predict mathematical ability. This study showed that both general creativity and mathematical ability are important to think creatively in mathematics.