Survey Links Critical Thinking to Creative Problem-Posing in College Students

A survey of 196 college students has found that mathematical literacy, information literacy, and a tendency toward critical thinking each show a significant positive association with the ability to pose creative mathematical problems grounded in real-world contexts. The study, published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, used a situational problem-posing paradigm that asked students to formulate quantitative questions from everyday scenarios, an approach the authors connect to the assessment orientation of mathematical literacy promoted by the OECD.

Unlike purely intra-mathematical problem-posing tasks, the situational design required participants to translate real-life quantitative situations into novel mathematical problems. Scoring addressed three dimensions of creative thinking named in the study: fluency, flexibility, and originality. The researchers report that students’ overall performance was relatively good, but that the high-and-medium-score rates differed significantly across these three dimensions, indicating uneven strengths in different aspects of creative problem-posing.

Background characteristics mattered unevenly. The main effect of academic major was significant, while the main effects of grade level and gender were not. This suggests that what students study, rather than how long they have studied or their demographic profile, was associated with differences in creative problem-posing performance in this sample.

Statistical analysis of the survey data showed that mathematical literacy, information literacy, and critical thinking tendency each had a significant positive impact on the ability to pose creative mathematical problems. The three constructs were also significantly and positively correlated with one another, pointing to substantial overlap between domain knowledge, handling of information, and evaluative thinking habits among the students surveyed.

The study’s central structural finding concerns critical thinking tendency, which displayed a significant moderated-mediation effect in the relationship between the two forms of literacy and creative problem-posing. In such a model, critical thinking tendency functions both as a pathway through which literacy relates to problem-posing outcomes and as a moderator that changes the strength of those relationships. In practical terms, the data indicate that the influence of mathematical and information literacy on students’ capacity to pose creative problems is not uniform but depends on students’ critical thinking dispositions.

Problem posing rooted in real-world contexts is closely connected with mathematical modelling practice and is considered an important manifestation of creative thinking. By measuring it through situational tasks rather than abstract exercises, the study aligns its assessment with the OECD-oriented view of mathematical literacy referenced by the authors.

The findings are specific to the 196 college students surveyed with this situational paradigm. As an observational study of a single cohort, it identifies associations and a statistical moderation structure rather than demonstrating causal effects of instruction. Even so, the results suggest that cultivating critical thinking dispositions alongside mathematical and information literacy may matter for students’ ability to generate original, contextually grounded mathematical problems.

Subject of Research: The roles of mathematical literacy, information literacy, and critical thinking tendency in college students' creative mathematical problem-posing

Article Title: The influence of college students’ mathematical literacy and information literacy on the ability to pose creative mathematical problems: based on the moderating-mediated effect of critical thinking tendency

Article References: Liu, C., Ji, Z., & Deng, L. (2026). The influence of college students’ mathematical literacy and information literacy on the ability to pose creative mathematical problems: based on the moderating-mediated effect of critical thinking tendency. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-09434-8

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-026-09434-8

Keywords: mathematical literacy, information literacy, critical thinking, problem posing, creativity, college students, mathematical modelling, quantitative survey, moderated mediation, OECD, influence, college