School mathematics and creativity at the elementary and middle-grade levels: How are they related?

In this study, we evaluated students' creativity, as expressed in the solution methods of three problems for groups of students in different grades. Posing the same problems to students of similar (advanced) mathematical abilities in different grades allowed us to look for possible connections between creativity and mathematical knowledge. The findings indicate that at the elementary school level, the number of solution methods and creativity scores increased with age. The collective methods space of the eighth graders seemed to narrow almost exclusively to algebraic methods, but the increase in the number of solutions was renewed in the ninth grade.