A Systematic Review of Creative Teaching Approaches in Mathematics Education

Abstract

Creative teaching plays an important role in enhancing the teaching and learning of mathematics by fostering students’ engagement, flexibility of thinking, and meaningful understanding. Teachers are encouraged to adopt creative teaching approaches to support students’ interest and creative thinking in mathematics classrooms. However, despite the growing attention to creative teaching, the literature remains fragmented in terms of how creative teaching approaches in mathematics education are conceptualised and reported. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a systematic review of the existing literature to identify and synthesise the creative teaching approaches reported in mathematics education. This study employed a systematic literature review following established review procedures. Articles were retrieved from two leading academic databases, namely Scopus and Web of Science. A total of 40 empirical studies published within the selected time frame were included for analysis. The selected studies were analysed using thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns and similarities in the reported creative teaching approaches. The findings reveal that creative teaching approaches in mathematics education can be synthesised into five major themes: technology-enhanced and AI-supported teaching, student-centred and inquiry-oriented learning, problem-solving and conceptual understanding approaches, project-based and STEAM/STEM-oriented learning, and visual, manipulative, and context-based learning. Among these, technology-enhanced and student-centred approaches were the most frequently reported in the literature. Overall, this review provides a comprehensive synthesis of creative teaching approaches in mathematics education and highlights prevailing trends and gaps in the existing literature. The findings offer valuable insights for educators, researchers, and curriculum developers in understanding how creative teaching is currently enacted in mathematics classrooms and suggest directions for future research on creative pedagogy in mathematics education.