Ancient School Without Walls: Collective Creativity in the Mathematics Village

Abstract

This study is designed as a qualitative research in order to examine (i) how the Mathematics Village promotes mathematical creativity and (ii) the transformation of Mathematics Village from a non-virtual environment to Social Media, which is a virtual environment. Our data collection tools include individual interviews with two mathematicians, who teach at the Mathematics Village as well as focus group interviews with seven high school, undergraduate, and graduate students and classroom observations. We have analyzed the collected data via content analysis. The findings of this study reveal that the Mathematics Village promotes mathematical creativity of students and enables mathematicians to activate their own creativity. From that perspective, having an educational setting that provides freedom can positively affect students' state of mind and creativity. Therefore, it is of importance to transfer basic characteristics of a non-virtual environment (Mathematics Village) into a virtual environment (Social Media), which brings people together with the aim of doing mathematics.