How teaching to foster mathematical creativity may impact student self-efficacy for proving

• Published in: The Journal of mathematical behavior 2020-03, Vol.57, p.100720, Article 100720
• Main Authors: Regier, Paul, Savic, Milos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Discrete math; Mathematical creativity; Proving; Self-efficacy
• ISSN: 0732-3123; 1873-8028
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmathb.2019.100720

•Fostering creativity impacted student affective traits beyond mathematical creativity.•Methods for characterizing creativity fostering behavior and student self-efficacy for proving were developed.•The self-efficacy for proving scale demonstrated discriminative and predictive validity.•Instructors leveraging challenge and uncertainty was associated with students gaining self-efficacy via own experiences.•Instructor support of risk and debate was associated with students gaining self-efficacy vicariously. Mathematical creativity has been emphasized as an essential part of mathematics, yet little research has been done to study the effects of fostering creativity in the tertiary mathematics classroom. In this paper, we explore how fostering mathematical creativity may impact student self-efficacy for proving. For this, we developed new methods to study evidence of instructor use of Sriraman’s (2005) five principles for fostering mathematical creativity and changes in student self-efficacy via Bandura's (1997) four sources of self-efficacy. This revealed associations between four of the five principles and changes in student self-efficacy for proving, along with two instances where the combined use of principles may have provided students greater opportunities for building self-efficacy for proving. The implications of these results for teaching and future research are discussed.