Rekenen, maar dan anders! De relatie tussen intelligentie en creatieve rekenvaardigheid.

Abstract

Background: Mathematical creativity is an important construct in the world of education. It is an unknown construct for teachers and students. Research has shown that it has a positive effect on children’s development in mathematical skills. Intelligence is an important predictor for mathematical creativity. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine whether there is a correlation between intelligence and mathematical creativity. The study also took age into account during the analysis. Intelligence was divided in verbal- and non-verbal intelligence. Mathematical creativity was divided in fluency, flexibility and originality. The current study investigated 383 Dutch primary school students from grades 3 to 5 (between 7 and 12 years of age). Results: A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to investigate if there was a correlation between intelligence and fluency, flexibility and originality. The data was collected with a multipele solution task. The results of the present study showed a positive significant relationship between intelligence and mathematical creativity. This positive relationship was given for all the constructs of mathematical creativity. Age also showed a positive correlation in the results. Conclusion: According to this study there was a positive relationship between intelligence and mathematical creativity. It can be concluded that a child’s intelligence can predict how high their fluency, flexibility and originality will be. The higher the intelligence of a student, the higher the student scores at mathematical creativity. At last, strengths, limitations and suggestions for future research were discussed.