Abstract
Optimism supports creative mathematical problem-solving. To elaborate its nature, empirical data were analyzed to identify relationships between optimism and more commonly researched constructs, confidence, and persistence. To do so, theoretical links between these constructs were first explored. Theoretically, confidence and persistence were found to be mutually exclusive personal characteristics possessed by optimistic students. Then, five elementary school students were purposefully selected from a broader longitudinal video-stimulated interview study of the role of optimism in collaborative problem-solving to find whether all combinations of confidence and persistence existed. Activity of students possessing different combinations of confidence and persistence was analyzed to determine whether there were differences in their problem-solving activity. Perseverance emerged as a third mutually exclusive characteristic within optimism. By distinguishing between persistence and perseverance, the crucial nature of perseverance in creative mathematical thinking was illuminated. These findings should inform teachers, teacher educators, and researchers interested in building optimism to increase problem-solving capacity.
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Acknowledgments
David Clarke at the International Centre for Classroom Research (University of Melbourne) hosted this study funded by the Australian Research Council (DP0986955). Special thanks to Cam Mitchell and Reggie Bowman (ICCR Technical Team) for their high quality collection of data. Thankyou to the reviewers for their thoughtful and insightful comments.
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Williams, G. Optimistic problem-solving activity: enacting confidence, persistence, and perseverance. ZDM Mathematics Education 46, 407–422 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-014-0586-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-014-0586-y