A Systematic Review on Instructional Strategies Promoting K-12 Students’ Creative Thinking in Mathematics
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Abstract
Researchers noted that creative thinking (CT) in mathematics is helpful to students’ mathematics learning in the basic education. However, little has been known about how CT in mathematics is being promoted in a mathematics instruction as documented by the empirical studies. To address this gap, this systematic review was conducted to document instructional interventions published from 2015 to 2024 that aimed to promote K-12 students’ CT in mathematics. The main objective of this study is to determine the instructional strategies that can promote K-12 students’ CT in mathematics, and the methods used on how CT in mathematics was measured. Using the PRISMA method as a guide, 114 articles were collected from the most common open-access research databases (ERIC, Google Scholar), and 12 qualified for the review. It was found that (1) the application of contextual learning, (2) the use of problem posing activities, (3) the use of inquiry-based learning, (4) the use of problem solving approach, (5) the use of cooperative learning, and (6) the use of interdisciplinary lesson can promote students’ CT in mathematics. It was also found that the use of (1) problem solving tasks, (2) problem posing tasks, and (3) dialogic teaching episodes were the methods used to measure the students’ CT in mathematics. The results suggested opportunities on how to develop school students’ mathematical creativity as well as how to assess it in a mathematics instruction. Furthermore, the systematic review identified gaps and discussed possible research focus.
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