Examining middle school mathematics teachers' views of mathematical creativity in the context of problem posing

The purpose of this study is to examine middle school mathematics teachers' views of mathematical creativity in the context of problem posing. A phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research approaches, was used in the study. The study group consisted of 20 middle school mathematics teachers selected through convenience sampling, a purposive sampling method. Data were collected through an open-ended form containing the instruction, "Generate three problems that support mathematical creativity," to which the teachers responded in writing, and through semi-structured interviews. The resulting 60 problems were analyzed using descriptive analysis, in line with the analysis framework developed by Biçer et al. (2024) and the 2024 Turkish Century Maarif Model Mathematics Curriculum. Content analysis was used to analyze the data obtained from the interviews. The study determined that teachers' perceptions of creativity varied during the problem posing process; however, the majority did not systematically support this skill sufficiently in classroom practices. However, it was observed that some teachers reflected creativity components such as originality and flexibility in a more limited way. Analysis of the posed problems revealed that teachers generally associated mathematical creativity with elements such as generating different solutions, relating them to real life, and presenting problem diversity. Furthermore, analysis conducted within the context of the 2024 Turkish Century Education Model curriculum revealed that problems were predominantly related to the theme of "Numbers and Quantities" across all grade levels, while very few problems were created related to the themes of "Statistics and Probability" and "Transformation Geometry." Based on these findings, it is recommended that teacher education programs increase content aimed at developing creative problem-posing skills.