Understanding Creativity in Mathematics for Improving Mathematical Education

Mathematical creativity is rooted in the intellectual abilities and personality traits of each individual, in which the direct influence of education is only moderate. However, education could have more influence on three important components of creativity: expertise, original thinking, and intrinsic motivation, which underlie individual creative potential. At school, the development of the students' creative potential should start from the teachers' mathematical education. Only expert and creative teachers can provide the appropriate environment for developing students' creativity. To develop their original thinking, students should have the opportunity to work with ill-posed and open-ended problems, to go wrong and make mistakes, and to find different solutions to the same problems. Through these experiences, associated with positive emotions, students should develop an intrinsic motivation for creativity in mathematics.