Creativity in Mathematics: A comparison of Educators’ Perceptions in the US and India

Balanced research and practice

This study was designed to understand how educators’ perspectives of creativity and mathematics impacted their views about creativity in mathematics. Using mixed-methods research, 81 educators in India and the US were asked to define creativity and justify statements ranging from those that were mathematical in nature to expressions defining mathematics as a creative entity. There were more similarities than differences between the groups. Most participants from each country viewed mathematics as a creative subject. While both groups agreed that mathematics is a collection of concepts, theorems, and procedures and can be learned using these procedures, fewer educators in the US agreed that these were the most appropriate methods for teaching math and that there was only one correct answer to a problem. The results of this study imply that teachers need more support to understand the developmental nature of creativity and effectively bring divergent thinking techniques into the mathematics classroom.