Giftedness and Aesthetics

Abstract

Giftedness in mathematics has been characterized by exceptional attributes including strong mathematical memory, formalizing perception, generalization, curtailment, flexibility, and elegance. Focusing on the last attribute, this study examined the following: (a) the criteria which expert mathematicians and mathematically gifted students fleshed out to identify their own most preferred mathematics problem-solving approaches and (b) the extent to which students perceived expert mathematicians' preferences for one approach over the others as aesthetically pleasing. The findings suggested that: (a) unlike expert mathematicians who saw beauty in mathematics as an exhaustive consequence of simplicity and originality, mathematically gifted students found mathematical elegance only in approaches that were efficient in terms of time and number of steps to solve the problems and (b) although expert mathematicians considered mathematically gifted students' most preferred approaches to be the least "beautiful," mathematically gifted students, showing no enthusiasm, considered expert mathematicians' most preferred approaches to be no more attractive than their own approaches.

The Prominence of Affect in Creativity: Expanding the Conception of Creativity in Mathematical Problem Solving

“…Analysis of the literature affirms the fact that creativity is multifaceted in the field of mathematics education (Mann 2006(Mann , 2009Sriraman 2006). Nevertheless, four components that recur in nearly all creativity literature are fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration.…”

“…On one hand, Amabile (1996) asserts that a solution needs to be appropriate to the task, and Torrance (1966Torrance ( , 2008 asserts that solutions need to be interpretable, meaningful, and have relevant ideas. Sriraman (2006), however, argues that problem solving solutions can be highly theoretical and not have any immediate or direct applications. It may be the case that the application of a highly theoretical solution will realize its significance long after created (e.g., many decades), thus substantiating Sriraman's point.…”

Analogy-Based Selective Problem-Solving Learning on the Skill to Solve Word Problems

“…The teacher's role revealed some student characteristics in demonstrating the SPS's success in showing their exceptional speed or sincerity in completing the SPS and their exceptional precision in their approach to the SPS (Tjoe, 2015). The SPS aims to develop students' ability to use and apply SPS mathematical knowledge in real-life situations.…”

Analyzing Characteristics of Experts in the Context of Stoichiometric Problem-Solving

“…One's affective domain can be defined as the values, interests, attitudes, and motivations they have that can impact how they solve problems [36]. Experts have an increased cognitive and affective functioning ability as they have a more positive attitude towards the problem in hand, often admiring the subject and therefore being more inclined to be perseverant compared to novices [37]. Therefore, during the interviews, it was expected to see a greater level of confidence when responding to each of the prompts and describing their strategies.…”