Nurturing Group Creativity in Mathematical Modeling through Role Playing

Pedagogical strategies for nurturing group creativity in school mathematics have remained largely unexplored despite their significance. In this study, we explored the use of role playing in mathematical modeling activities for nurturing group creativity in a 9th-grade mathematics class in Korea. We described the theoretical bases and types of roles that nurture group creativity while examining the effects of role playing and the factors that seem to promote it. The data of this study included lesson observations, samples of student work, and interviews with 20 participating students and their teachers. The interactions of the five groups of students were compared and analyzed. The results suggest that role playing contributes to nurturing group creativity by inducing interactions and improving creative synergies. The factors that seem to promote role playing are students' understanding of role playing, a comfortable environment, the thought evaluator's role-playing effectiveness, and the need to make a mathematical decision. Based on these findings, we recommend that creativity researchers build on these findings to further explore how group creativity can be enhanced in mathematical modeling through role playing.