This qualitative study explored how teachers in a university-based K-8 enrichment program perceived creativity and fostered creative thinking in their classrooms. Twelve enrichment program teachers participated in interviews examining their views on creativity and teaching strategies used to foster creative skills. Findings revealed teachers…

This study investigates the analogies used by a sample of secondary mathematics teachers when they described the concept of function. The study is concerned with understanding what analogies were used by the participant teachers and conceptions of functions positioned in those analogies. Using examples from a set of responses to five open-ended…

As imperceptible as it is, mathematics is fundamental and is present on several occasions in our daily lives, but among 65 countries Brazil still ranks 53rd in education. The lack of investment in primary education has affected students learning since the early years. From this perspective, this paper proposed to verify teaching/learning in…

Global creativity indices in developing countries tend to be low. In the field of education, creativity has an important role. Efforts to increase the creativity of educational human resources continue to be hyped. Creative teachers produce creative students. But, the fact is that teachers in developing countries tend to need more creativity in…

This mixed-methods study examined 220 teachers' responses from a new instrument, the Imagination, Creativity, and Innovation (ICI) Index. ICI Index scores represented teachers' predictions of how students would rate their school's support for student creativity, which was assumed to represent the teachers' perspective of the actual support for…

This paper first explains the concept of creativity, then reviews the domestic and foreign researches on creativity, and then discusses the importance and basic principles of cultivating creativity of middle school students. Finally, the paper puts forward the ways to cultivate the creativity of middle school students. The purpose of this paper is…

Gifted students in regular classrooms have fewer opportunities to develop activities that are based on their characteristics as learners and address their needs; however, many of them spend most of their school time in these classrooms. The results presented here were part of a 2-year qualitative project that analyzed 12 Chilean gifted students'…

Various curriculum resources have emerged over the last decades, but the textbook still remains the most used teaching and learning resource in mathematics classrooms. In this paper, we use a case study to analyse the teaching practice of one mathematics teacher. The aim of the study is to examine how the mathematics teacher interacts with the…

Current education reform in both the United States and China promotes a reformed inquiry-based approach based on the constructivist learning theory. This study contributes to the research literature by exploring the relationship between reformed science teaching and students' creativity. Chinese education is often criticized for a lack of…

In this article, Sarah Currier, a math specialist at Elizabeth Hall International School in Minnesota, describes how she used origami in a deliberate manner to teach content. She shares how she uses paper folding to teach mathematical concepts, reinforce vocabulary, and as a problem-solving model. She also offers ideas for using origami in other…

This article arises from an action research investigation that sought to understand the ways in which different approaches to teaching pre-twentieth century literature in Year 9 English lessons might influence students' experiences of texts. It examines the proposition that some students need to have a secure understanding of the text before they…

In a classroom or take-home activity, students are challenged to write their name as a combination of chemical-element symbols and calculate "their" molar mass. Age-appropriate versions ranging from middle school to entry-level college classes are discussed. Acceptable molar-mass suggestions may be used in a competition for the heaviest…

Youth in middle and secondary grades, between childhood and the adult world, sometimes struggle with their identities as readers and learners. Too many describe themselves or are described by their teachers and parents as "reluctant, disengaged, and/or unmotivated" by classroom texts or by the rows of books in school libraries. Even…

What better way to interest students in mathematics than using a Super Bowl® commercial? A Prudential® insurance commercial aired during the Super Bowl in 2013 was the impetus for this lesson (see it here on You-Tube™: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=IsNiKGMSHUQ). In the commercial, four hundred people were polled on "How Old Is the Oldest…

In this article we intend to analyze the effectiveness of an educational program of mathematical creativity, designed for learners aged 10 to 12 years, which has been implemented in an urban school of Iasi, Romania. This analysis has both a psycho-educational dimension and a statistical analysis one. The psycho-educational dimension refers to the…