Creativity is one of the keys to helping children like mathematics.
Nowadays, teachers are encouraged to encourage creativity in math class, since there is a lot of evidence that children are very creative and in the same way that they create their own stories or invent songs, too They can invent their own methods to solve mathematical problems.
When elementary teachers encourage students to ask questions, make observations, and approach problems in an inventive manner, they create an environment that supports creative mathematical thinking.
Let's see some ways to take advantage of that creativity:
Asking math questions is a form of creativity. Children love to know how things work, so when teachers present a new concept, they should also leave time for students to make observations and ask questions.
Teachers can accustom their students to ask them clever questions, such as: how can we know what is more expensive: buy chocolate or vanilla ice cream for the class party?
The teacher's job is to make sure that students have the tools they need to solve the problem and ask clarifying questions to help them solve it.
Individual conversations help students articulate and extend their reasoning processes.
Many things have changed in math classes over the past 30 years. Nowadays it is almost unthinkable to have a class, where the teacher entered, asked to open the textbooks, read page 78, and then, after forty minutes of silence, he asked that the book exercises be done.
Nowadays, instead of learning memorization procedures, children are taught to understand the methods they are using, such as understanding the types of triangles that exist and that is certainly a good thing.
And yet, something is still missing. It seems to me that very few children are being taught to love mathematics or to get excited about them. There is a widespread perception that mathematics is simply a set of methods that must be learned in order to cope with life after school.
What is this about?
In many cases, it is because the teachers themselves have little love for mathematics.
The good news is that more and more the word creativity is applied to mathematics at school.
Creativity is the word that goes along with doing things wrong. Part of the mathematical baggage that most adults carry is the feeling that mathematics is about getting the right answers, and that asking the wrong question is a public sign of weakness.
If we want mathematics to be creative, then we have to consider it as a subject in which it is okay to do things wrong. In fact, it is inevitable. If you never make mistakes, you do not discover anything new.
The history of civilization shows that we only create things when we are allowed to make mistakes. In fact, many of the greatest inventions and discoveries came as a direct result of things going badly. Penicillin was discovered when unwanted bacteria blew in a petri dish. The Post-It note was the brilliant adaptation of a glue that was not sticky enough to function as glue.
