Classroom Teaching Directed Towards The Cultivation Of Mathematical Creativity In Middle School

One of the key objectives of mathematics education is the development of students’ mathematical creativity.International mathematics education as well as national curricular standards place a strong premium on the development of mathematical creativity.Nonetheless,a number of studies have revealed that students’ mathematical creativity is currently at a somewhat low level.Teachers and scholars are increasingly interested in the cultivation of teenagers’ mathematical creativity.In the classroom,mathematical creativity exists within a system of students,teachers and teaching tasks.Researchers should focus on the development of mathematical creativity around these three elements in the classroom.The study constructed a framework for content analysis and another for classroom observations that both indicate to the cultivation of mathematical creativity.Teachers’ lesson preparations were analysed through the content analysis;teachers’ teaching behaviors and students’ corresponding classroom performance were studied through the classroom observation.Interviews were also used to discover more about how teachers intended to employ mathematical problems and instructional behaviors,how teachers perceived the cultivation of mathematical creativity,and how students felt about their real learning experiences.This article mainly discusses the following issues:(1)What are the characteristics of mathematical tasks used in classroom teaching in terms of the cultivation of mathematical creativity?(2)What are the characteristics of the teaching behaviors presented in classroom teaching in terms of the cultivation of mathematical creativity?(3)How well do students perform in the classroom in relation to the cultivation of mathematical creativity?The research results show that(1)for the mathematical tasks used in daily mathematics teaching,the four teachers performed better on the mathematical fluency and flexibility dimensions,second best on the mathematical novelty dimension,and worse on the mathematical elaboration dimension;(2)for the teaching behaviors used in daily mathematics teaching,more behaviors were found on the mathematical fluency and flexibility dimensions,second best on the mathematical novelty dimension,and less on the mathematical elaboration dimension;(3)Students’ classroom performance was better in the mathematical fluency,flexibility and elaboration dimensions but less in the novelty dimension.On the whole,there is consistency between teachers’ teaching and students’ learning in the cultivation of mathematical creativity.In addition,the analysis of teachers in groups of teaching experience also revealed that experienced teachers performed better than early career teachers in both the use of mathematical tasks and teaching behaviors to develop mathematical creativity.Finally,based on the above findings,this study provides some enlightenment and suggestions about teacher teaching,student learning and textbook compiling to help frontline teachers better cultivate mathematical creativity in their daily teaching.