Investigation of mathematical collective creativity of gifted middle school students during model-eliciting activities: the case of the quilt problem

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the collective mathematical creativity of gifted middle school students within a group through model-eliciting activities. The current study employed the case study design. The participating four gifted students were selected through the purposive sampling technique. To examine the collective creativity of the students as a group, model-eliciting activities were administered to a focus group in which four students worked together. One of these activities was subjected to a detailed descriptive analysis. The collective mathematical creativity of the students demonstrated in the course of model eliciting, the solutions produced by the students and their opinions about them (fluency), the variation in the solutions (flexibility), the interconnected construction of the students’ ideas during the solution process (associative hierarchies), and the relationships constructed by the students throughout the whole problem-solving process (building mathematical relationships) were investigated. The creativity of the collective products generated by the students was explained in relation to the dimensions of the accuracy of the models, as well as their generalizability, the solutions’ quality and originality. The model-eliciting activity was examined it in detail by means of the descriptive analysis method.