Creativity and mathematics

Before this input, I was struggling to see the connection between creativity and mathematics. I thought back to my own experiences of mathematics in primary school and all I could remember were textbooks and workbooks. You were asked a question that had only one answer and one way of achieving the answer. How does creativity fit into this concept? I considered my learning of creativity so far. I knew that it involved exploration, risk taking, discussion, questioning, new ideas that have value... I thought about what creativity in mathematics might involve and came up with; active learning, problem solving, open questions which can be taken to different depths depending on the learner, success, confidence, questioning, peer working, games and discussion. These were all aspects, which I felt were important and have been trying to incorporate into my own practice but had just not associated it with creativity.

Curriculum for Excellence (2009) states that “Learning mathematics develops logical reasoning, analysis, problem-solving, creativity and the ability to think in abstract ways.” It  describes features of effective learning and teaching in mathematics to be that every child experiences success which should help develop confidence in risk taking, questioning and exploring alternative answers without fear of being wrong. These are all attributes I would associate with creativity. I can see the benefit of imbedding the creative process in mathematics as it plays an important part in everyday life equipping us with the necessary skills.

Haylock (1997) discusses two approaches to creative thinking in maths. The first, overcoming fixation, which relates to breaking the mental set which children have and bringing in a variety of maths skills and concepts to solve problems. This needs patience and can be challenging as some pupils will only focus on the numbers and therefore, not think through the problem properly. It is important to consider what we are assessing, maths or reading? The second approach is Divergent progress, which relates to maths, which is not necessarily right or wrong. This can take the form of open-ended questions that can be given to the whole class as each child can take the learning as deep as they are able to. It could also take the form of small challenges, which are a good way of focusing the mind. It is this approach which I favour as I feel that it fits in with the attribute of creativity and what Curriculum for Excellence (2009) advocates.  There are however, issues with this approach such as a lack of resources, parents tend to dislike maths being taught in this way as it is different from what they may have experienced and the mind set of some teachers would need to be changed through support and guidance.

I now believe that to enable children to develop creative skills in mathematics it is important for teachers to model creativity in their teaching. It is not something that can be taught every so often but needs to play a part in every maths lesson. Children need to feel supported to take risks, question and have time for discussion. You cannot encourage creativity in your pupils if you are not prepared to be creative yourself.

References

Haylock, D. (1997). ‘Recognising Mathematical Creativity in School children’,ZDM, Vol.29, No3, pp68-74.

Scottish Government. (2009). Curriculum for Excellence Expressive Mathematics experiences and outcomes. Edinburgh: Scottish Government