The Contributions of Mathematics Teachers Enhancing Students’ Critical Thinking, Reasoning and Creativity Skills on Problem Solving Abilities in Mathematics

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the contributions of mathematics teachers enhancing students’ critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity skills on enhancing students’ problem solving abilities in mathematics. The study used survey design with quantitative research method, and 102 teachers were selected using stratified random sampling based on the type of program, level of teaching and service year. The instrument used of the study was a Likert scale on enhancing students' critical thinking, reasoning, creativity skills and problem solving abilities in mathematics, and analyzed by mean, standard deviation, correlation, and multiple regression. The finding indicated that the perception of mathematics teachers enhancing students’ critical thinking, reasoning, creativity skills, and problem solving abilities in mathematics were above average. There is a significantly and positively associated between the perceptions of mathematics teachers enhancing students’ critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity skills in mathematics with enhancing problem solving abilities in mathematics; and enhancing students' reasoning skill was the highest and significantly contributor or predictor to enhancing problem solving abilities in mathematics; but the contribution of the mathematics teachers enhancing students' critical thinking and creativity skills were not significantly contributed or predicted to enhancing problem solving abilities in mathematics. Some of the recommendations were: training should be given to teachers on enhancing students’ critical thinking, reasoning and creativity skills, and mathematical problem solving ability; the curriculum and the textbook should designed to enable learners communicate their mathematical critical thinking, reasoning and creativity on mathematical problem solving.