RUME 28
2026
Alexandria, Virginia
Creativity in Proving Through Individual, Small Group, and Whole Class Contexts
Page: 1319
Although proof-based courses are predominately taught through lecture, many instructors have begun to incorporate more inquiry-oriented learning in their courses, providing space for small-group and whole-class work in addition to individual proving. There is little known regarding how these different contexts foster mathematical creativity. In this study, I investigate how students report experiencing creativity in an introduction-to-proof course taught through collaborative, inquiry-oriented methods. I give specific attention to how students reported experiencing creativity in individual, small group, and whole-class contexts. Student responses to an open-ended end-of-course reflection prompt were first analyzed inductively to identify the contexts students described feeling creative. Across the seven responses, five students specifically identified small group work, three students identified whole class work, and three students identified individual work as contexts in which they experienced creativity throughout the course. I provide an in-depth analysis of each of these contexts to report how students experienced creativity.