| Levels of creativity | Distribution (percentage) | Examples from student questionnaires |
| Level Zero Employing Algorithms | 40.4% (N = 23) | Students used a simple algorithm for calculating areas. The areas calculated were areas of geometrical figures, for example trapezoids, squares, rectangles. Examples of these calculations may be found in the following questionnaires: [25B], [30b], [28B], [18B], [48B], [37B], [30B] *the quotes were left out of this part of the table for technical reasons. |
| Level One Developing a method from a given situation | 17.5% (N = 10) | “if you divide it by “Sun Lines” , you get 4 triangles and 4 squares…” [33C] “…two triangles belong to the heart part…” “The colored parts are equally divide between the father and the son…” [35C] “…part A equals part B, part D equals part C, the diagonal line crosses them, so the areas are equal…” [36C] “…I used the small square as a unit of measurement and saw that the hearts were equal to 5 squares altogether…” [43D] |
| Level Two Constructing a solution by exploring what is stated in the problem | 15.8% (N = 9) | “…I see the cake as a geometrical shape, so I’ll use Euclidian geometry to solve the problem…” [24A] …I will prove that MDCN is a rectangle..” [26A] “…EF is parallel to AB…” [51A] |
| Other verbal solutions | 26.3% (N = 15) | “…in order to figure out who ate more, I tried to “fit” the father’s piece into the son’s pieces…” [21D] “…I cut the son’s piece roughly in the middle…” [6D] “…after cutting the pieces and trying to overlap them, I could see that the son’s piece…” [7D] |