This study initially reviewed the extant relevant literature, integrated different concepts of creativity, and noted that crea-tivity consists of fluency, flexibility, originality, the ability to elaborate, and so on.
Students in this study demonstrated moderate overall play-fulness; they were most likely to enjoy the process of creativity and least likely to take pleasure in the creation and resolution of problems. They also demonstrated a moderate degree of crea-tivity, and among the elements of creativity, they were most likely to show curiosity and least likely to show imagination. This finding is more specific than those of past studies in terms of the individual variables contributing to students’ playfulness and creativity.
Additionally, most previous studies focused on the behaviors of children. This study broke with that tradition by extending the focus to students who were gifted in mathematics and sci-ence. Based on Glynn and Webster’s (1992) theory of adult playfulness, we further integrated and developed the Personal Playfulness Scale for use in this study. However, few studies have focused on understanding how playfulness is related to creativity. Indeed, no previous studies have analyzed the con-nection between playfulness and creativity among students gifted in mathematics and science. This research was novel in its attempt to analyze the relationship between playfulness and creativity among students gifted in mathematics.
In conclusion, the results indicate that creativity is enhanced in the context of playfulness. The playfulness and creativity of this sample of students with high achievement in mathematics were positively correlated. Playfulness has direct predictive power in relation to students’ creativity.