PROCEEDINGS OF THE 23RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2020
Boston, Massachusetts
Mathematical limitations as opportunities for creativity: An anti-deficit perspective
Page: 814
This theoretical report connects an anti-deficit perspective on students’ mathematical sense making with students’ mathematical creativity. The report specifically examines the role of mathematical limitations during the different stages of the creative process. We discuss mathematical creativity in the specific context of constructing everyday examples to explain basis in linear algebra. We consider this construction as a creative activity. We argue that mathematical limitations in students’ initial examples are not only reasonable but can also provide opportunities for more mathematical creativity. While identifying the mathematical limitations led some students to dismiss their examples, thereby ending the creative process, for others it led to further engagement in the creative process through deeper exploration of the everyday example and the mathematics. This report shows that not only does flexibility with full mathematical precision with the examples allow for an anti-deficit interpretation of the students and their sensemaking of the mathematics, such flexibility also sustains the creative process.