Mathematical creativity among (preservice) teachers: An assessment approach
Abstract
Many nations today include the goal of creativity in their curriculum. Goals on their own, however, are insufficient without support by teachers for students to become creative themselves. This paper describes the development of an assessment rubric, that includes three characteristics of creativity (fluency, flexibility, and novelty), to analyse mathematical creativity in written work. It then applies the rubric to responses gathered from 19 preservice secondary mathematics teachers (PSMTs) in the context of completing multiple solution problems. The overall distribution of ratings indicates that level of creativity among the solutions of PSMTs was generally modest to moderate.
Keywords
mathematical assessment, teaching, preservice teachers
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Date of Publication
2026
Publication Title
The 48th Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA)
Publisher
Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia Inc.
School
School of Education
RAS ID
100075
Copyright
free_to_read
Recommended Citation
Hatisaru, V., Richardson, S., & McCarthy, A. (2026). Mathematical creativity among (preservice) teachers: An assessment approach. In N. Berger, M. Thompson, J. Ley, & C. Wilsmore (Eds.), Beyond boundaries: Strengthening futures in mathematics education. Proceedings of the 48th Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (pp. 194-201). MERGA. https://merga.net.au/merga48/