Abstract
In this chapter, the Creativity Research Group shares results from a study in which progressions of undergraduate students’ perspectives of mathematical creativity in an introduction-to-proofs course were explored. The course was intentionally designed to value students’ creativity throughout in-class activities and out-of-class assignments. The Creativity-in-Progress Reflection (CPR) on Proving, a formative assessment tool, was introduced to students and used in several class sessions and assignments. In this phenomenological qualitative study, four participants were purposefully selected, and their lived experiences with the phenomenon of mathematical creativity are presented to describe the progressions of their perspectives. Several data sources such as pre- and post-surveys, reflection assignments (RAs), transcripts of class sessions, and interviews were utilized in the analysis. Results indicate that even though all four students had initially similar perspectives of mathematical creativity including unique, innovative, original approaches or different ways of solving a problem, their perspectives evolved to incorporate different mathematical actions that they utilized to be more mathematically creative.