Mathematical Creative Thinking Ability and Self-Efficacy: A Mixed-Methods Study involving Indonesian Students

With regard to creativity in mathematics, scholars tend to focus on the logical realm, which includes fluency, flexibility, and originality while overlooking the value of the affective domain, which includes self-efficacy, beliefs, and attitudes. The objectives of this study were 1) to investigate the extent to which self-efficacy affects students’ mathematical creative thinking ability; and 2) to determine the characteristics of students with high mathematical creative thinking ability and high self-efficacy. A mixed-method approach, that combined semi-structured interviews, and correlation analysis was employed to investigate the effect of self-efficacy on students’ mathematical creative thinking ability. The participants of the study were selected from junior high schools (JHS) in the city of Makassar. Ninety-six students (42 boys and 54 girls, aged 14 years old) completed a questionnaire assessing their mathematics self-efficacy. In general, the results proved that self-efficacy had an effect on JHS students’ mathematical creative thinking ability. This study also revealed that students with high self-efficacy are more likely to possess high mathematical creative thinking ability and vice versa. The characteristics of students with high mathematical creative thinking ability and high self-efficacy include excessive anxiety, reliance on key experiences, such as the ability to generate ideas (cognitive novelty), the ability to propose various solutions (cognitive variety), and the ability to change perceptions (cognitive framing).