Open-ended tasks which are not completely open: Challenges and creativity

Sigal Klein, Roza Leikin

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Mathematics educators argue that open-ended tasks as a powerful tool for the development of students’ creativity in mathematics, while it is well known that solving open-ended tasks is challenging for students. Recently we argued that not every open-ended task is fully open, as even when a task has a multiplicity of solution outcomes completeness of the set of solution outcomes is possible. To make the distinction between openness and multiplicity and avoid ambiguity related to the term ‘openness’ we use the term ‘Multiple Outcomes Tasks’ (MOTs). In this paper we analyze students’ mathematical performance on two MOTs. We consider the completeness of the set of solution outcomes produced by a student as an indicator of his/her creativity due to the unconventionality of MOTs in regular classes. Our findings suggest that MOTs with continuous-infinite set of solution outcomes are more challenging than MOTs with discrete and finite sets.

Original languageAmerican English
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 46th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 2023
EditorsMichal Ayalon, Boris Koichu, Roza Leikin, Laurie Rubel, Michal Tabach
Pages171-178
Number of pages8
StatePublished - 2023
Event46th Annual Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, PME 2023 - Haifa, Israel
Duration: 16 Jul 202221 Jul 2022

Publication series

NameProceedings of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education
Volume3

Conference

Conference46th Annual Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, PME 2023
Country/TerritoryIsrael
CityHaifa
Period16/07/2221/07/22

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Mathematics (miscellaneous)
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Education

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