Teachers’ Creativity in Posing Statistical Problems from Discrete Data

Effandi Zakaria,Faridah Salleh

doi:10.4236/ce.2012.38201

Abstract

Choosing a quality problem in mathematics is a challenge for many teachers. Teachers cannot rely on textbooks for good problems. They have to be able to pose their own problems in order to promote mathematical thinking among students. This study was conducted to explore the creativity of 175 teachers in terms of fluency, flexibility, and originality in posing statistical problems. Participants consisted of secondary school teachers from twenty schools in Peninsular Malaysia. Teaching experience was ranged from 1 to 33 years. The features of the problems posed by these teachers were also studied. The participants were provided a stimulus, which was a set of ungrouped discrete data, and they were asked to pose as many problems as they could. The posed statistical problems were supposed to promote mathematical thinking and to increase students’ understanding. Findings showed that participants were able to pose a total of 270 (74%) statistical problems within the time given. The mean of the creativity score was 11.08 (s.d. = 6.76). Analysis showed no significant difference in creativity between gender and the value of t = –.346, p = .73, where p > .05. Analysis showed significant differences in the teachers’ creativity scores for three groups of teachers: F (2172) = 6.83, p = .001, p < .05.The results also showed that 115 (31.5%) posed problems focuses on the statistical content measure of central tendency. The study provided expo- sure to the teachers to pose problems that can trigger students’ thinking in solving statistical problems.

Highlights

NCTM (2000) has strongly recommended both problem posing and problem solving activities are implemented in the teaching and learning of mathematics
According to Chua (2004), Jensen (1973), and Noraini (2001), Guilford and Torrance have identified four types of creative thinking: 1) originality, which is the process of creating new ideas and original; 2) fluency, which is the process of creating a lot of ideas at one time, where the generated ideas do not necessarily to be too different; 3) flexibility, which is the process of producing a range of ideas and different category altogether; and 4) elaboration, which is the process of adding one idea to another idea or process to see something in detail
The first finding concerns the features of posed problems among teachers in terms of statistical content to answer the research question, “What are the features of the posed problem in terms of the statistical content?” The answers are provided in Table 1, which shows the distribution of statistical problems by category

Summary

Introduction

NCTM (2000) has strongly recommended both problem posing and problem solving activities are implemented in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Teachers should have skills in both posing problems and solving problems in order to help students to learn mathematics (Brown & Walter, 1983; Kilpatrick, 1987; Silver, 1994). Problem posing is a creation of a new problem or the reformulation of problem through a given situation (Leung, 1993). Balka (1974) used to measure creativity in mathematics in terms of their fluency, flexibility, and the originality of posed problems According to Chua (2004), Jensen (1973), and Noraini (2001), Guilford and Torrance have identified four types of creative thinking: 1) originality, which is the process of creating new ideas and original; 2) fluency, which is the process of creating a lot of ideas at one time, where the generated ideas do not necessarily to be too different; 3) flexibility, which is the process of producing a range of ideas and different category altogether; and 4) elaboration, which is the process of adding one idea to another idea or process to see something in detail. Balka (1974) used to measure creativity in mathematics in terms of their fluency, flexibility, and the originality of posed problems

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Conclusion