Preservice Mathematics Teachers’ Problem-Solving Self-Efficacy, Critical Thinking Disposition, and Mathematical Creativity Self-Efficacy: A Cross-Sectional Path Analytic Study
Murat Genç, Mustafa Akıncı, İlhan Karataş, Özgür Murat Çolakoğlu
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Source: Crossref
Published: Oct 21, 2026
DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence14100271
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Developing flexible thinking, generating alternative solution strategies, and producing original ideas are increasingly emphasized in mathematics education. This study examines the relationships among preservice elementary mathematics teachers’ problem-solving self-efficacy, critical thinking disposition, and mathematical creativity self-efficacy. Drawing on a theoretically informed framework, it specifically investigates whether critical thinking disposition statistically mediates the association between problem-solving self-efficacy and mathematical creativity self-efficacy. Data were collected from 554 preservice elementary mathematics teachers. Analyses included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and bootstrap-based observed-variable path analysis to obtain robust estimates of direct and indirect associations. Findings indicated that positive problem-solving self-efficacy was strongly associated with critical thinking disposition, which was, in turn, positively associated with mathematical creativity self-efficacy. Critical thinking disposition also statistically mediated the association between problem-solving self-efficacy and mathematical creativity self-efficacy. A reverse-direction model showed comparably good overall fit, indicating that the observed data were also compatible with an alternative directional ordering. These findings suggest that problem-solving self-efficacy and critical thinking disposition represent complementary cognitive-affective constructs that are empirically associated with perceptions of mathematical creativity. Given the cross-sectional design, the findings should not be interpreted as evidence of causal direction. The results instead provide empirical support for a theoretically motivated model of the associations among problem-solving self-efficacy, critical thinking disposition, and mathematical creativity self-efficacy.
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