An examination of preschool textbooks in terms of mathematical creativity

This study aims to examine the mathematical and non-mathematical items in preschool textbooks distributed to students by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) in terms of creative thinking skills and more specifically mathematical creativity. Document analysis method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. Three MoNE textbooks at the preschool level (Hand in Hand 1, Hand in Hand 2 and Hand in Hand 3) was determined as the data source. Five analysis frameworks were used for data analysis. With these analysis frameworks, firstly, the types of items in the textbooks were determined (mathematical, non-mathematical and items using mathematics as a context). Then, these items were analysed according to whether they allow the development of mathematical creativity or not and this analysis was based on 6 indicators: i.) open-ended questions, ii.) finding different solutions, iii.) finding different solutions, iii.) problem posing exercises, iv.) non-routine problem solving, v.) mathematical modelling, vi.) conducting projects and research. The open-ended questions were specifically subjected to further analysis and analysed in comparison with the closed-ended questions. The items were also analysed according to their status as action (doing) and saying and doing items were analysed according to their codes (painting, drawing a picture, circling, line following, matching, marking, drawing a shape, grouping, completing a shape). Finally, the items were analysed in terms of creativity components (fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration). It was observed that there were 436 items in total in the 3 textbooks analysed, 212 of these items were mathematical ones, 208 were non-mathematical/general items and 16 were items in which mathematics was used as a context. It was determined that 383 of the items in the books consisted of closed-ended and 53 of them consisted of open-ended items. It was seen that the indicators created for mathematical creativity could also be used for the analysis of all types of items and as a result of the analyses made to determine these indicators, it was determined that there were no items in the context of 'conducting projects and research', 'mathematical modelling', 'allowing different solutions', 'problem posing' and 'non-routine problem solving'. There are 353 doing and 83 saying items in the books and it was observed that the doing items were mostly 'colouring', 'drawing a picture' and 'circling'. It was found that only 28 (6.42%) of the items in the books enabled the development of creative thinking and each of these 28 items included the components of 'flexibility', 'originality' and 'elaboration' but only 8 of them included the component of 'fluency'. This study shows that the items/instructions to develop mathematical creativity skills in the textbooks are only in a certain area (open-ended ones) and in a small number.