Fostering Mathematical Creativity Through Multiple Solution Tasks

Abstract

Fuchs &Gross in 2009, stated that mathematics is one of the primary competencies in 
everyday life and ranges from simple tasks from counting to simple calculations, forming the 
bases and foundation of the nation. Over the last decades the needs of the society have changed, 
and hence the demand for skilled and educated youth possessing 21st-century skills i.e. the 4C‘s 
(Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Communication) has also mushroomed over the 
past decade. To overpower such, our education system is experiencing a paradigm shift in the 
method of teaching and learning pedagogies especially with a core like mathematics which 
forms the bases of conceptualizing and understanding the application and mechanism of world 
principles and theories. Therefore, core topics such as mensuration, number system, geometry, 
data handling, and algebra have become the components of learning and priority at earlier 
stages of childhood. And hence, different and distinguishable pedagogies of the same is explored 
as one of the most vivid topics in the present community of mathematics education. In 2002, 
Owen & Fuchs have claimed that visual representations of mathematical concepts result in 
better gains under certain conditions, hence giving a better opportunity to students with learning 
abstract and abstruse concepts of mathematics. This paper aims to explore different pedagogies 
of mathematics teaching and learning through the use of visualizing aids i.e. manipulatives to 
form a concrete relation with abstraction in mathematics to a physical or real-life association. 
Over the period of time strategies developed like STAR (Stimulate- Translate—Apply—Relate), 
IDDEA(Identify—Discuss—Demonstrate—Emphasise—Assess),  VC2(Visualize—Compare—Correlate), aims to break the steps of teaching into a framework, allowing teachers/educator to 
use and apply different approaches of teaching i.e. visualization of topic through suitable 
manipulatives effectively. Allowing the teacher to inculcate the 21st-century skills in their 
learners.