Stacy T. Shaw, Anahit A. Yeghyayan, Eric Ballenger, Gerardo Ramirez
{"title":"Generating mathematical strategies shows evidence of a serial order effect","authors":"Stacy T. Shaw, Anahit A. Yeghyayan, Eric Ballenger, Gerardo Ramirez","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1347444","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This study investigated whether performance on a mathematical strategy-generating task showed evidence for a serial order effect (decreasing fluency but increasing originality and creativity of strategies over time). One-hundred and fifty-five undergraduate students generated as many strategies as they could to solve a three-digit subtraction problem for 8 min, and the resulting strategies were evaluated using fluency and originality indexes that were heavily informed by research on creativity. Results showed evidence for a serial order effect, such that strategy fluency decreased across the working period, but later strategies were rated as more original/creative. These results demonstrates that classroom practices that encourage strategy generation can be a useful tool to help students think more creatively in mathematics.","PeriodicalId":52290,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers in Education","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1347444","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study investigated whether performance on a mathematical strategy-generating task showed evidence for a serial order effect (decreasing fluency but increasing originality and creativity of strategies over time). One-hundred and fifty-five undergraduate students generated as many strategies as they could to solve a three-digit subtraction problem for 8 min, and the resulting strategies were evaluated using fluency and originality indexes that were heavily informed by research on creativity. Results showed evidence for a serial order effect, such that strategy fluency decreased across the working period, but later strategies were rated as more original/creative. These results demonstrates that classroom practices that encourage strategy generation can be a useful tool to help students think more creatively in mathematics.