Future Math Teachers Show Above-Average Creativity but Struggle with Non-Routine Problems

Pre-service middle school mathematics teachers scored above average on a creative thinking dispositions scale, yet the same participants showed difficulties when solving non-routine problems, according to a mixed-methods study published in BMC Psychology. The research, led by Nadide Yılmaz, examined how future teachers’ creative thinking dispositions relate to their problem-solving skills and to the specific strategies they choose when tackling unfamiliar mathematical tasks.

The study involved 59 fourth-year pre-service middle school mathematics teachers. Using a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, the researcher collected quantitative data through the Marmara Creative Thinking Dispositions Scale, which measures dispositions across sub-factors including self-discipline, innovation search, courage, inquisitiveness, doubt, and flexibility. Qualitative data came from the participants’ written solutions to non-routine problems, allowing the researcher to analyze both how well the future teachers solved such problems and which strategies they preferred.

The quantitative results showed that participants’ overall scores on the creative thinking dispositions scale, along with all of its sub-factor scores, were above average. However, the qualitative analysis revealed that the same participants experienced difficulties when solving non-routine problems and when applying problem-solving strategies to them. The study reports these two observations side by side, without drawing a causal link between disposition levels and performance on non-standard tasks.

Correlational analysis uncovered a meaningful pattern: the pre-service teachers’ problem-solving skills were positively and significantly correlated with their total creative thinking disposition scores. At the level of individual sub-factors, significant positive correlations emerged for self-discipline, innovation search, courage, and inquisitiveness. The doubt and flexibility sub-factors also showed positive relationships with problem-solving skills, but these did not reach statistical significance. Because the study is correlational, these findings indicate association rather than causation, and the researcher notes that further work is needed to understand the potential interplay between the two dimensions.

When the researcher compared the problem-solving strategies preferred by teachers with different levels of creative thinking dispositions, the quantitative findings showed no significant differences across disposition levels. The qualitative results supported this conclusion. Still, descriptive tendencies appeared in the written solutions: pre-service teachers with high creative thinking disposition levels tended to favor visual representation and strategies involving accounting for all possibilities, while those with low disposition levels tended to prefer working backwards and writing an equation.

The study’s conclusions emphasize that examining cognitive and affective dimensions together may offer a broader perspective on pre-service teachers’ problem-solving and creative thinking. Problem-solving skills and creative thinking dispositions are both considered important components of effective mathematical thinking, and the findings suggest that considering the two dimensions jointly can add to what either measure shows on its own.

The researcher also acknowledges limits in scope. The sample consisted of 59 fourth-year pre-service teachers, and the study concludes with a call for further research to examine these dimensions across different contexts and to better understand how creative dispositions and problem-solving skills may interact. The published version is an open-access article released early for faster access, and it remains subject to further edits before the final Version of Record.

For the field of mathematics education, the study offers a snapshot of how a small group of future middle school teachers performed on non-routine problems and how their self-reported creative dispositions aligned with measured problem-solving skills. The alignment between the qualitative analysis of written solutions and the quantitative scale results strengthens the descriptive picture, while the absence of significant differences in strategy preference across disposition levels tempers any expectation that disposition scores alone predict which problem-solving approaches teachers will adopt.

Subject of Research: Pre-service middle school mathematics teachers’ creative thinking dispositions and problem solving skills

Article Title: Pre-service middle school mathematics teachers’ creative thinking dispositions and problem solving skills

Article References: Yılmaz, N. (2026). Pre-service middle school mathematics teachers’ creative thinking dispositions and problem solving skills. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05494-2

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05494-2

Keywords: Pre-service, middle, school, mathematics, teachers, creative, thinking, dispositions, problem, solving, skills, scientific research