Describing collective creative acts in a mathematical problem-solving environment

In this article, I report on a study of the nature of collective creativity in mathematics learning settings. Based on an extensive review of the literature on creativity, the study was initially framed by a number of themes to encompass a variety of visions of creativity. These themes were used in the analysis of data collected in a Grade 6 mathematics learning environment. The themes were then refined and (re)developed to distill four creative acts to describe the experience of creativity with(in) the collective. These collective creative acts are: summing forces, expanding possibilities, divergent thinking, and assembling things in new ways. Here, I present the findings of the study, then, I speculate on some of the logical implications of the four collective creative acts for teaching and learning.