The effect of high versus low guidance structured tasks on mathematical creativity

To engage in challenging tasks, students need to feel some autonomy and competence. Providing structure within the task can help to meet these needs. This study investigates the influence of structure within a modelling task on mathematical creativity among 79 eleventh grade groups of students. Two versions of the task were developed and the groups were randomly assigned within their classroom to one of these. The analysis explored: (i) the level of mathematical creativity in groups solutions and (ii) if they were dependent on the amount of structure. The results were not statistically significant and, therefore, the question remains open. Additional results and implication of this study to mathematics education are further discussed.