How teaching to foster mathematical creativity may impact student self-efficacy for proving

Mathematical creativity has been emphasized as an essential part of mathematics, yet little research has been done to study the effects of fostering creativity in the tertiary mathematics classroom. In this paper, we explore how fostering mathematical creativity may impact student self-efficacy for proving. For this, we developed new methods to study evidence of instructor use of Sriraman’s (2005) five principles for fostering mathematical creativity and changes in student self-efficacy via Bandura's (1997) four sources of self-efficacy. This revealed associations between four of the five principles and changes in student self-efficacy for proving, along with two instances where the combined use of principles may have provided students greater opportunities for building self-efficacy for proving. The implications of these results for teaching and future research are discussed.