Students’ intuitive or rational behaviors in the computational problem-solving process provide a base for the rational thinking required by creativity. However, rationality is a comprehensive concept with different components such as epistemic, teleological, and communicative rationality, and should be analyzed within the framework of these components. In this study, Habermas’ construct of rationality was used to elaborate rational thinking and investigate how rationality affects creativity in computational problem-solving. For this purpose, computational problem-solving tasks that allow the emergence of creativity components in the problem-solving process and require the knowledge and use of calculus concepts such as differentiability, derivative, tangent line, and extremum points of a function were used. The results showed that students’ endeavors to meet epistemic, teleological, and communicative rationality requirements during computational problem-solving practices were effective in their creativity in the categories of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. These results are thought to be important for enhancing students’ creativity in problem-solving by supporting their rational behaviors. It is thought that teachers’ implementing problem-solving tasks with rational questioning strategies that will trigger students’ rational behaviors will enhance their creativity.
Urhan et al. (Sun,) studied this question.