Does gender affect the mathematics creativity of junior high school students?

Mathematics learning in the 21st century is a learning that emphasizes the importance of development in 4 aspects (4C), one of them is creativity. Mathematical creativity is students’ skill to solve a problem with several strategies to reach different answers in certain tasks which are useful in developing mathematical reasoning. Relating to this context, nowadays, the issues of gender in education have been concern, that education must treat male and female students as equal. This research used one-way ANOVA to analyze the differences between the mathematical creativity between male and female students in junior high school. The research method used was quantitative descriptive. The sample of this research was 56 students of SMP Batik Surakarta who were taken by random sampling method. The results found that male and female students did not have differences in the ability of mathematical creativity. The insignificant difference can only be seen from their average scores. Female students are superior to male in the indicators of fluency, flexibility, and elaboration, but not in the indicator of originality.


Introduction
Currently, world civilization has entered the twenty-first century. One of the challenges faced in education is the development of human resources who have creativity. In the past, creativity was always associated with literature and art, but now doing meaningful science is also considered as creativity [1]. Mathematical creativity comes from more than strong basic knowledge. It stems from the ability to break away from a stable mindset, look at problems from the outside and apply mathematical knowledge in seeing possibilities [2][3][4]. One challenging task is in interpreting the notions of mathematical creativity and its characteristics because there is no specific definition of mathematical creativity that is agreed upon by many people [5]. Mathematical creativity is the skill to formulate problems in new styles, find ways and solutions, and find methods of solutions to unusual problems. One way to develop students' authentic thinking is to provide open-ended questions that require students' mathematical creativity in answering these questions and allowing more than one answer [6,7]. Furthermore, mathematical creativity plays an important role in advanced mathematical thinking [8]. This research is in line with Sriraman's research [9] which revealed that mathematical creativity explains the overall development of mathematics. Instead of being a source of development, mathematical creativity as a field was not well explored in mathematics and mathematics education in the world. On the other hand, Poincare [10] described that mathematical creativity referred to the ability to construct mathematical alternatives leading to success. Additionally, Haylock [3] classified mathematical creativity in two types: the ability to overcome obstacle conditions of mathematical problem solving;

Method
The method used in this research is quantitative descriptive method. The purpose is to analyze gender differences in the mathematical creativity of students of SMP Batik Surakarta. The population in this study was eighth-grade students in SMP Batik Surakarta, the selection of samples to represent the school was done by stratified cluster random sampling technique and 56 students were selected. In collecting data, this study used an instrument in the form of a mathematical creativity test. The students were given 4 questions which were carried out in 60 minutes, each question presents 4 indicators of mathematical creativity such as fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. The topic in the question is the circle. This research used one-way ANOVA. Before that, the prerequisite test is carried out such as normality and homogeneity test.

Result and Discussion
Based on the results of tests that have been given to students, the results are then tested for variance analysis with two prerequisite tests namely normality and homogeneity test. The normality test indicates the significance of 0.209 > 0.05 and the homogeneity test indicates the significance of 0.543 > 0.05. The hypothesis of the analysis of variance is below.
H0: Males and females have the same test result of mathematical creativity H1: Males and females have not the same test result of mathematical creativity After calculation, it is obtained that the results of the significance are 0.141 > 0.05, so H0 is accepted and H1 is rejected which is male and female students have the same result of mathematical creativity. This result is in line with research conducted by Ayyıldız-Potur that there was no difference between males and females in using their abilities of creative thinking [16]. Similarly, a study conducted by Schermer [23] among undergraduate students revealed that there was no significant difference found between male and female students in creativity.
Mathematical creativity has 4 indicators, namely fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. The male students obtained the highest score on the indicator of flexibility, while the female students obtained the highest score on the indicator of fluency. Also, when viewed from the average obtained by students, male students scored lower on average than female students, male students scored 37.86 while female students were 42.00. Besides, when viewed from the average obtained by students, male students scored lower on average than female students, male students scored 37.86 while female students were 42.00. Even so, the average value obtained by students is relatively low, so it can be said that mathematical creativity in SMP Batik Surakarta is still low. So the effort is needed to improve that ability. One way that can be done is by student-centered learning, so students become more active throughout learning. It was consistent with findings by Heong [24], "Students who were trained to think critically and creative often demonstrated a positive impact on the development of their education." Below will be presented a diagram showing the achievements obtained by male and female students on each indicator of mathematical creativity that is shown in Figure 1. Based on Figure 1, on the question that represents fluency indicators, 58% of male students can answer a given problem, meanwhile, 63% of female students could also answer that question. Even  though the given answers are not perfect, this shows that female students have a higher ability on the fluency indicator than male students. Also, more than fifty percent of the total male and female students can answer questions on this indicator of fluency so that it can be said that the scores obtained by male and female students on the indicator of fluency are quite high. On a question that represent indicators of flexibility, only 30% of male students were able to answer questions, almost the same as male students, only female students were able to answer only 33% of female students. This shows that on the question that represents a flexibility indicator, female students were better than female students. This is in line with the research conducted by Awamleh found out the presence of gender differences in creative thinking ability, their study shows that women had an advantage over men in flexibility [16]. Similarly, line with the research conducted by Kousoulas [20] found out that results of divergent thinking assignments show that female students got a higher score than male students in flexibility.
On the question that represents the originality indicator, 37% of male students could answer the question while 36% of female students could also answer that question. This indicator showed that even though men had a higher score than women, even though the difference was not significant. On the question that represents the elaboration indicator, 29% of male students were able to answer questions while 35% female students could answer. This shows that female students were excellent in solving problems in questions that represent and elaboration indicator than male students.
The results also show that the mathematical creativity of male and female students in completing questions following indicators of flexibility, originality, and elaboration is relatively low because less than fifty percent of male and female students were able to answer these questions. This happens because some students have difficulty understanding the problem and how to solve it. In Nguyen's opinion [25] which states that students have difficulty in concluding and most students are confused when the teacher asks them to describe what they know.
On the other hand, this may be caused by differences in the methods used by students in answering questions, each student has a different way of solving a problem. It accordance with the statement of Zhang and Ching quoted by Anggraini [26] which states that students can apply the right method according to their individual preference, so they can develop their critical thinking.
Based on the explanation above, it is known that the mathematical creativity of female students is superior to male students in three indicators of mathematical creativity, which are fluency, flexibility, and elaboration, while for originality indicators male students are better than female students. Next, different answers from male and female students will be discussed on each indicator of mathematical creativity. The student answers will be shown below.

Fluency
Fluency is related to the diversity of student answers that can be produced. The following question will be presented with students' answers that fulfill the fluency in Figure 2. In Figure 2(b), it appears that student understand the questions given, students know what steps can be done. Students first look for the area of cycle sector and find the area of the triangle, then find the area of the shaded area by reducing the area of cycle sector to the area of the triangle. The steps taken by students are correct, but students are not careful in writing units of the area of sector and triangle, so the answer becomes less precise. On the other hand, in Figure 2(c) appears that student understand the questions given, students know what steps can be done. The completion step that this student uses is different from the previous student in Figure 2(a), first, look for the area of ¼ cycle and find the area of the triangle, then find the area of the shaded area by reducing area of ¼ cycle to the area of the triangle. The steps taken and the answer by students are correct.

Flexibility
Flexibility is associated with the ability of students to generate different ideas, able to change the system or approach and be able to resolve the problem with the different directions of thinking from a problem. The following question will be presented with students' answers that fulfill the flexibility in Figure 4.
One day, class VIII student junior high school held a study tour in Bale Kambang Park in Surakarta. The teacher assign student to estimate the diameter of a tree that is large enough. Dina, Salwa, Berlva, Haris and Iman took the initiative to calculate the diameter of the tree by measuring the circumference of the tree. They link each other fingertips as shown in the picture on the side. The average length from the tip of the left finger to the right finger of each student is 120 cm. If exactly those five children touched their fingertip to surround the tree, can you estimate the length of diameter of the tree? The students' answers to the question in Figure 4 are presented in Figure 5. In Figure 5(a), it appears that student understand the questions given, students know what steps can be done. Students determine the circumference of the tree first, then manipulate the formula of circumference. It is seen that students had no difficulty in solving the problems. On the other hand, Figure 5(c) shows that students understand the completion steps to be taken, but students were still difficult in the division operation.

Originality
Originality is the ability of students to try the approach in a way or method of an unusual or unique based on the ideas from the students themselves. The following question was presented with students' answers that fulfill the originality in Figure 6. The students' answers to the question in Figure 6 are presented in Figure 7. In Figure 7(a), it appears that student only guess without a clear basis and the explanation of the answers presented by students is not supported by proof. On the other hand, Figure 7(c) shows that student does not have difficulty in solving problems, student understand what steps to do. The student takes the initiative to consider the length of the square so that it is easier to calculate the area of the shaded area.

Elaboration
Elaboration is the student's ability to redefine a problem or situation and itemize in detail the steps of a problem given. The following question will be presented with students' answers that fulfill the elaboration in Figure 8. The students' answers to the question in Figure 8 are presented in Figure 9. In Figure 9(a), it appears that student make mistakes in understanding the purpose of the question so the student answer is wrong, but at least students have thought about the solution that will be done. On the other hand, Figure 9(c) shows that student does not have difficulty in solving problems, student understand what steps to do and solve the problem well.