Mathematical Creativity in Model-Eliciting Activities

Adapting and Refining an Analytical Framework

Abstract

Existing approaches to mathematical creativity often focus on the evaluation of students’ final products, offering a more limited view of how creative reasoning emerges during modelling processes. Addressing this gap, this study adapts Amaral and Carreira’s (2012) analytical framework to the context of model-eliciting activities (MEAs). In this study, MEAs are understood as open-ended modelling tasks that require students to construct, test, and justify mathematical models in meaningful problem situations. The study examined the applicability of this framework in the MEA context and identified the additional resources needed for its refinement. Data were collected from the written work and clinical interviews of 12 Turkish middle school students in Grades 7 and 8, including six gifted and six non-gifted students, and analysed through deductive–inductive content analysis. The results indicated that the original indicators of originality, flexibility, and fluency remained relevant in the MEA context; however, three additional resources were needed to capture data-based mathematical inference, the prioritisation of alternative variables or criteria, and adaptive strategic reorganisation. These results suggest that the adapted framework offers a more process-sensitive analytic lens for examining mathematical creativity in MEAs and may support future research on modelling, assessment, and task design.