A qualitative study of pre-service secondary mathematics teachers? mathematical creativity in problem-solving situations

Creatively inquiring and thinking skills are becoming more crucial than ever. For this reason, mathematical creativity has major importance. Yet, creativity is not well discovered area in mathematics and mathematical education. Even though mathematical activities are nested with creativity, the schools provide insufficient experiences related to creativity in mathematics.The main aim of this study was to determine pre-service secondary mathematics teachers? creative thinking skills which were presented by them in different mathematical problem-solving situations. With this aim, their problem-solving behaviors presented by them in different mathematical problem-solving situations, the reasons for the difficulties faced up by them in finding out solutions, and their creative thinking skills in terms of fluency, flexibility and originality, were examined.This study was carried out during the spring term of 2006?2007 academic year. Twenty two pre-service secondary mathematics teachers participated to this study during their optional course called `Selected Topics in Mathematics?. In order to obtain in-depth knowledge, the qualitative research approaches including classroom observations, pre-service teachers? journals, and semi-structured interviews were utilized. Coding techniques of the grounded theory were used in data analysis.The results of this study pointed out numbers of issues related to mathematical creativity. It was found that the pre-service teachers developed various problem-solving behaviors in different mathematical problem situations. It was also obtained that pre-service teachers were faced up with various difficulties due to the kind of the strategies they have used and the way in which the strategies were used by them.The research findings also pointed out that creative thinking skills in terms of fluency, flexibility and originality, mainly seem to depend on some personal and external factors, however, it should be noted here that, none of these factors can effect creative thinking skills by themselves.