Miscellaneous Topics In: Sacristán, A.I., Cortés-Zavala, J.C. & Ruiz-Arias, P.M. (Eds.). (2020). Mathematics Education Across Cultures: Proceedings of the 42nd Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Mexico. Cinvestav / AMIUTEM / PME-NA. https:/doi.org/10.51272/pmena.42.2020 1069 SOURCES OF EVOLUTION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ VIEWS ON MATHEMATICAL CREATIVITY Emily Cilli-Turner University of La Verne ecilli-turner@laverne.edu Miloš Savić University of Oklahoma savic@ou.edu Gail Tang University of La Verne gtang@laverne.edu Houssein El Turkey University of New Haven helturkey@newhaven.edu Gulden Karakok University of Northern Colorado gulden.karakok@unco.edu In a world that is in increasing demand for creativity, mathematics courses and programs need to shift from more routine and computational to more creative and problem-solving focused. We present preliminary results of a qualitative research study in which we examined students’ perceptions of mathematical creativity in an introduction-to-proofs course. We conducted interviews with students as well as collected their reflection assignments at the end of the semester. Using a definition of creativity from a relativistic perspective, we analyzed interview data to describe how students’ perspectives of mathematical creativity evolved throughout the semester and the sources of those shifts. Students shifted from previously not seeing themselves, others, or mathematics as creative, to believing they are creative. The sources found in the data are related to content and course design. Keywords: University Mathematics, Creativity, Affect, Emotion, Beliefs, and Attitudes Introduction Curriculum-standard documents, both in the United States and internationally, mention creativity as an important skill when learning mathematics (Askew, 2013). Additionally, creativity has become one of the most sought-after skills for academia and industry employers (World Economic Forum, 2016). While the mathematical creativity literature at the K-12 level is well-developed, there remain few studies at the undergraduate level and fewer still that investigate students’ beliefs about creativity and its role in mathematics. In this qualitative study, we explored students’ perceptions of mathematical creativity and how they evolved over the semester of an introduction-to-proofs course. Furthermore, we examine the sources of these shifts as evidenced by the students’ own words. Theoretical Perspective As with many of our research projects on mathematical creativity (Tang et al., 2015; Savic, Karakok, Tang, El Turkey, & Naccarato, 2017), this study uses a developmental perspective of creativity (Kozbelt, Beghetto & Runco, 2010). This theoretical lens contends that creativity develops over time and emphasizes the role of the environment in the development of creativity. Such an environment should provide students authentic mathematical tasks and opportunities to interact with others (Sriraman, 2005). We operationalize mathematical creativity as “a process of offering new solutions or insights that are unexpected for the student, with respect to their mathematical background or the problems [they’ve] seen before” (Savić et al., 2017; p.1419). This definition focuses on the process (Pelczer & Rodriguez, 2011) of creation, rather than the product that is created at the end of a process (Runco & Jaeger, 2012).