An analysis of the gifted and non-gifted students’ creativity within the context of problem-posing activity<quillbot-extension-portal></quillbot-extension-portal>

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the mathematical creativity of gifted and non-gifted students through the indicators of creativity (fluency, flexibility, and originality). The study involved 12 secondary school students (six gifted and six non-gifted) from different cities in the Black Sea Region of Türkiye. The data were collected through clinical interviews regarding the solutions developed by the students for a problem-posing activity developed by Balka (1974). Each student was interviewed twice over a two-week period. Prior to the interviews, the students were asked to pose as many different and varied problems as possible. In the clinical interviews, the students' solutions were discussed deeply without evaluating their correctness. Using the theoretical framework developed by Taşkın (2016), data were analyzed using fluency, flexibility, and originality indicators of creativity. The results revealed no clear difference between gifted and non-gifted students in terms of fluency indicators, but gifted students generally pose problems more creatively and flexibly than their non-gifted peers. It has been suggested that problem-posing activities be used to compare the creativity of gifted and non-gifted students. The indicators of originality and flexibility can also be weighted differently for calculating students' final scores of mathematical creativity because they are more effective at distinguishing gifted from non-gifted students. 

Keywords

• mathematical modeling
• model eliciting activities
• primary school
• teaching experiment