Abstract
The purpose of this experimental study was to examine the creative constructs of students enrolled in Differential Calculus at the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines. This study was composed of 132 engineering and mathematics education students enrolled in two different semesters. The experimental group was chosen randomly, exposed to the problem-based HALP model teaching approach and problem posing while the control group was taught using Polya’s problem-solving heuristics. Multiple Solution Tasks (MST) test in Calculus was administered to determine their creative constructs which can be measured in terms of their level of mathematical fluency, flexibility and novelty of solutions before and after the experiment. Results indicated that the experimental group exhibited a remarkable improvement of their mathematical fluency and flexibility but still in the developing level when they are required to posit novel solutions to problems as influenced by the problem-based HALP and problem posing activities. Hence, it is recommended that mathematics teachers may utilize these methods to successfully develop students’ mathematical creativity and future research may also be explored on integrating technology and how it can influence developing student’s mathematical creativeness as well as the mediating role of their affective domains and IQ (intelligent quotient).
Highlights
Philosophers summed up the emerging present world system in four principles which are universalism, globalism, interdependence and creativity, while other contemporary scholars viewed creativity as the “cultural capital of the 21st century” for it is among the most important and pervasive of all human ability (Sheridan-Rabideau, 2010)
In view of the above, this present study investigated the development of the creative constructs of students as influenced by a teacher’s use of the problem-based Hawaii Algebra Learning Project (HALP) model and problem posing activities integrated in the lesson activities as well as in the work text in Differential Calculus which the researchers developed as the main instructional material used in this study
The following table presents the level of mathematical fluency, flexibility, and novelty of solutions as indicators of students’ creative constructs in Calculus
Summary
Philosophers summed up the emerging present world system in four principles which are universalism, globalism, interdependence and creativity, while other contemporary scholars viewed creativity as the “cultural capital of the 21st century” for it is among the most important and pervasive of all human ability (Sheridan-Rabideau, 2010). In order to evaluate students’ level of mathematical creativity in terms of their mathematical fluency, flexibility and originality/novelty of solutions, the Multiple Solution Tasks (MST) test proposed by Kantorovich, Koichu, Leikin and Berman (2011) was followed but in this study, selected topics in Differential Calculus was carefully decided and made to ensure that minimum competencies of the course was successfully met In this test, students are tasked to answer the problems in the MST test in many different ways aimed to measure the mentioned categories of creativity and explained further if they can only posit one solution for the problem. In view of the above, this present study investigated the development of the creative constructs of students as influenced by a teacher’s use of the problem-based Hawaii Algebra Learning Project (HALP) model and problem posing activities integrated in the lesson activities as well as in the work text in Differential Calculus which the researchers developed as the main instructional material used in this study. This work test underwent a pilot study in the previous semester and the content was validated by mathematics education experts and passed the instructional materials (IM) committee of the university, that is, the work text is fit for distribution among students
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