The Effect of Creative Problem Solving on Students' Mathematical Creative Thinking: Controlling for Prior Mathematical Ability

Mathematical creative thinking is an essential competence that enables students to generate diverse ideas, develop alternative solution strategies, and produce original and detailed mathematical solutions. However, conventional mathematics instruction may provide limited opportunities for students to explore multiple approaches to mathematical problems. This study aimed to examine the effect of the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) learning model on students’ mathematical creative thinking while controlling for prior mathematical ability. A quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental posttest-only control group design was employed. The participants were 20 eleventh-grade students at UPTD SMK Negeri 1 Aralle, Indonesia, consisting of 13 students in the experimental group and 7 students in the control group. Data were collected using a prior mathematical ability test, a mathematical creative thinking test, and a student response questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) with IBM SPSS Statistics 27. The results showed that the mean mathematical creative thinking score of students in the CPS group was 78.97, compared with 49.52 in the conventional learning group. After controlling for prior mathematical ability, ANCOVA revealed a significant effect of the learning model on students’ mathematical creative thinking, F = 11.695, p = .003. The effect size, indicated by a Partial Eta Squared of .408, demonstrated a large practical effect. The adjusted mean scores also favored the CPS group (80.478) over the conventional group (46.398). Furthermore, students who participated in CPS demonstrated higher achievement across all four indicators of mathematical creative thinking: fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. These findings indicate that Creative Problem Solving can serve as an effective instructional approach for fostering students’ mathematical creative thinking, particularly by providing structured opportunities to generate, evaluate, and develop multiple mathematical solution ideas.