Published November 2012. "The first part of the book introduces games, puzzles and mathematical recreations, including knight tours on a chessboard. The second part explains how thinking about playing games can mirror the thinking of a mathematician, using scientific investigation, tactics and strategy, and sharp observation. Finally the author considers game-like features found in a wide range of human behaviours, illuminating the role of mathematics and helping to explain why it exists at all. "
From the abstract: "Studies on creative mathematics conducted in the past decades revealed that the importance of
creation of learning and teaching environment favourable to the identification and nurturing
creativity in mathematics. Based on psychological, methodological and didactical models created
by Krutetskii (2006), Shchedrovtiskii (2008), Brousseau (2007) and Sierpinska (2004), we have
developed our challenging situation approach. During 5 years of field study in the elementary
grade VII classroom, we collected sufficient amount of data that demonstrate how these
challenging situations help to discover and to boost mathematical creativity in very young
children, keeping and increasing their interest towards more advanced mathematics curriculum.
This article is an humble attempt to present our model and illustrate how it works in the mixedability
classroom. We will also discuss different roles that teachers and students might play in
this kind of environment and how each side could benefit from it."