Examination the Opinions of Pre-Service Teachers on the Concept of Creativity

Abstract

This study aims to examine the opinions of the pre-service teachers, who are studying in the department of mathematics, on creativity and the concept of mathematical creativity. The study group of the study consisted of 32 pre-service teachers studying in the 4th grade in the department of mathematics teaching in a province located in the southern region of Turkey in the 2022-2023 academic year. In this study, qualitative research method was used. In the study, semi-structured interview technique, one of the qualitative data collection techniques, was used. Content analysis technique was employed to analyze the data obtained from the interviews. As a result of the analysis of the data obtained in the research, pre-service teachers stated that creativity is a different and original way of thinking, it is a case of adding a new one on top of the existing situation, and mathematical creativity is the ability to produce different and new solutions. In addition, the opinions of pre-service teachers about the characteristics that should be in a creative teacher are gathered in two themes as professional and personal characteristics. In addition, it was concluded that the majority of the opinions of the pre-service teachers about their self-sufficient and inadequate situations in terms of creativity considered themselves at a sufficient level in this regard.