This study aims to explore a phenomenon of a one-off manifestation of mathematical creativity on the part of a student, against the background of her normative and not especially creative behavior--a flash of creativity. We seek to elaborate on this phenomenon in terms of the 4P (person, press, process and product) model of creativity. Namely,…

This article discusses an issue of inserting mathematical knowledge within the problem-solving processes. Relatively advanced mathematical knowledge is defined in terms of "three mathematical worlds"; relatively advanced problem-solving behaviours are defined in terms of taxonomies of "proof schemes" and "heuristic behaviours". The relationships…

This article presents an instructional approach to constructing discovery-oriented activities. The cornerstone of the approach is a systematically asked question "If a mathematical statement under consideration is plausible, but wrong anyway, how can one fix it?" or, in brief, "If not, what yes?" The approach is illustrated with examples from…

This article describes the following phenomenon: Gifted high school students trained in solving Olympiad-style mathematics problems experienced conflict between their conceptions of "effectiveness" and "elegance" (the EEC). This phenomenon was observed while analyzing clinical task-based interviews that were conducted with three members of the…