Creativity is a vital skill that students need to navigate the challenges of the 21st century. Advances in computers, technology and artificial intelligence, robots can now perform most daily tasks that previously required humans (Bicer, 2021). Creative thinking has therefore become a very important employability skill. Creative thinking is an activity that involves the ability to think by involving new ideas that are original, reflective, and produce a complex product (Krulik & Rudnick, 1999). Creativity as an ability reflects the fluency, flexibility and originality of thinking and the ability to elaborate to achieve success in solving problems (Adiansha et al., 2020). So that creative ideas can be developed through classroom learning and assessment.

Creative thinking contributes greatly to mathematics learning. Creative thinking is a person's capacity to generate new ideas, solutions or concepts that are original and valuable (Bicer et al., 2024). Originality of ideas is the main requirement for mathematical creativity arising from imagination, curiosity, and the courage to take risks from learning experiences (Bereczki & Kárpáti, 2021). Therefore, in the assessment of classroom learning, students need to be directed to foster creative ideas in solving mathematical problems. In schools, student creativity is reflected in creative expression, creative problem solving, and knowledge creation skills, which can be developed independently or used as learning topics in science, technology, mathematics, engineering, and other courses (Lucas & Venckutė, 2020). Creativity skills are useful in improving problem-solving and problem-posing skills (Sadak et al., 2022). So that in learning mathematics, it is necessary to provide problems that demand creativity.

Creative thinking is the ability to generate new ideas creatively. The creative thinking perspective is based on divergent thinking, focusing on flexibility, fluency, and novelty (Silver, 1997). Flexibility is the ability to generate multiple ways to find solutions. Flexibility of ideas is demonstrated by new, different, and unusual ideas (Bokhove et al., 2023). Originality of ideas refers to the novelty of individual responses, which is a key indicator of creativity (Habib et al., 2024). Originality of ideas is defined as the discovery of unusual, clever, and novel ideas (Bloom et al., 2014). These three criteria become the framework for analyzing creative thinking skills, which are arranged based on the level of creative thinking skills.

One of the essential aspects that requires creative thinking skills is solving numeracy problems. Students are required to be able to formulate, apply, and interpret in solving problems in various real-world context (O.E.C.D., 2018). Starting in 2021 the PISA study tests innovative subjects-creative thinking(O.E.C.D., 2019). Learning that integrates numeracy and creativity, can develop critical and adaptive thinking skills, which are needed in this information age (Witono & Hadi, 2025). So it is necessary to study students' creative abilities in solving numeracy problems.

Research related to the ability to think creatively in solving numeracy problems has been documented by several previous researchers (Fadlilah & Siswono, 2022) documented the ability to solve numeracy problems is measured from the creative thinking ability of assimilating and converging students. His research shows that students with assimilating learning styles tend to be creative compared to converging students, who are still quite creative. (Putri & Awalludin, 2024) documented related to solving literacy and numeracy problems analyzed based on mathematical creative thinking ability based on a review of self-efficacy. The results prove that students who have low self-efficacy are only able to fulfill the fluency indicator, while students who have high and medium self-efficacy are able to fulfill the fluency, elaboration, and originality indicators. (Said & Syamsuddin, 2023) research related to the Effect of the Numeracy Literacy-Based Scientific Approach on Creative Thinking and Mathematical Communication Skills. The results provide a positive effect in improving creative thinking skills. However, there are still few studies related to numeracy problems measured by the level of creative thinking skills.

The contribution of this research lies in understanding the level of creative thinking ability which is important to know as a basis for improving student numeracy in learning mathematics in elementary schools. This study aims to determine the level of students' creative thinking skills in solving numeracy problems.

Descriptive research using a written numeracy test was conducted with fourth-grade students. Descriptive analysis was used to reveal the level of students' creative thinking ability. The general research findings are presented in this section, specifically, the research results reveal the level of creative thinking, in the form of: 1) level 0 (not creative), 2) level 1 (almost not creative), and level 2 (quite creative).

The results of the tests conducted in general found that students' creative thinking skills were still far from what was expected. Students' creative thinking ability in solving numeracy is presented in Figure 2. It can be seen that students' creativity abilities have only reached level 2, with students being able to solve problems with one original solution but not fulfilling the requirements. fluency or flexibility, or there are students who can show other ways to solve a problem, but do not fulfil fluency and flexibility. Most only reached levels 0 and 1, with more than half of the subjects only reaching level 0, Students could not solve the problem in more than one way of solving and could not show other ways to solve it. Solutions did not meet the originality (novelty), fluency, and or flexibility. Students also cannot propose problems of novelty and flexibility. Errors made by students are caused by weaknesses in understanding related concepts.

For levels 3 and 4, which are classified as high levels of creativity, there are no students who reach that level. Students are not able to solve problems with more than one solution and can represent other ways to solve them. One solution fulfils originality (novelty). So it can be concluded that students' mathematical creativity skills are still low or need to be improved. This research is in line with the results of PISA 2015 that less than 0.8% of students were able to solve high-level problems, and reached 42.3% able to solve level 2 and below problems (O.E.C.D., 2016).

Students are unable to bring up all categories of creative thinking including novelty, fluency, and flexibility. The results of analyzing students' answers show that students tend to be weak in understanding mathematical concepts in solving problems. Furthermore, not many students reach level 2, although they can use creative ideas by bringing up novelty in answering problems, but not reach the criteria of fluency and flexibility. The results of analysing students' answers show that students tend to be unfamiliar with solving open-ended problems that require creative thinking. Different from previous research (Nabila & Amin, 2024) Both high and low self-efficacy students fulfilled all the indicators of creative thinking. However, the students had been taught the material in advance prior to the test. Each student generated varied responses in problem-solving, reflecting the three indicators of creativity: (1) fluency, (2) flexibility, and (3) originality 2021(Fauziyah et al., 2021). However, the study titled Through Sharing and Jumping Task in Mathematics Lesson Study Activity showed an improvement in students’ creativity. This research is focused on the students’ test outcomes.

Creative thinking skills that are still relatively low in solving numeracy problems, especially in terms of fluency and flexibility, which are creative levels, indicate that there is a need for improvement in improving students' creative thinking. Strengthening numeracy and creative thinking skills in learning mathematics in elementary schools is a crucial factor in preparing students to face the challenges of life in the future (Witono & Hadi, 2025). Thus, the achievement of this level is expected to be an illustration of designing learning.

Most students' answers did not fulfil originality (novelty). Likewise, at high levels (level 3 and 4) none of the students achieved it. This study differs from the research of (García-García et al., 2024) that there were 5.9% of participants who achieved high mathematical creativity, although it is still relatively small, the difference is due to the treatment of music training on mathematical performance and the role of creativity. In line with research related to student numeracy skills that have been conducted by several researchers, such as (Sa’dijah et al., 2023) student numeracy skills being low, as many as 62% of students are at a poor level in solving numeracy problems. Students still have difficulty solving level 1 and 2 numeracy problems (Masfufah & Afriansyah, 2021). As many as 58% of grade 5 elementary school students have low numeracy literacy skills (Rahmwati, 2022). Unlike previous research (Slyamkhan et al., 2022) The distribution ratio of mathematical literacy dependence on basic thinking forms (objective, symbolic, and sign) is classified as high.

The learning process in the classroom plays an important role in improving students' creative thinking skills. Based on the results of research (Saputra, 2020) in the learning process at school, students have difficulty solving new problems in innovative ways as needed. So students need to be given problems that support creative thinking. In addition, the problem in the learning process is still low memorisation with creativity; the problem of learning mathematics is the delivery of information from teachers to students, which is memorised and has low creativity (Sholeh & Fahrurozi, 2021). Students need to have a high mathematical disposition to solve math problems that demand creativity (Patmalasari et al., 2017). Mathematical creative thinking among students frequently remains underdeveloped because of insufficient attention to non-cognitive factors (Suherman & Vidákovich, 2025). Therefore, students' creative thinking outcomes serve as points for future improvement.

Supporting the effective use of creativity in the classroom requires professional development for teachers that focusses on problems development that addressing creativity (Shodiq et al., 2025). The significance of designing pedagogical approaches to cultivate and evaluate creative competencies (Lu et al., 2025). By implementing tasks and activities, educators can foster various dimensions of students' creative abilities, including fluency, flexibility, and originality. So that there needs to be a breakthrough in the process of learning mathematics through activities and approaches that support students' mathematical creativity.

The results of data analysis show that students' creative thinking skills in solving numeracy problems are still relatively low. From ability levels 0 to 4, students with good creative thinking skills only reached level 2 (quite creative). There are no students who have reached level 3 or 4. Most students still reach the lower levels (level 0 and level 1). This indicates that, in the learning process students need to improve their creative thinking skills. So this research is expected to be a reference material for teachers to design learning according to the level of students' creative thinking abilities, which still feels difficult in its application.

Based on the results of the analysis, it shows that in solving problems that are open-ended or open questions, it is important for students to have good creative thinking skills. Suggestions for teachers in designing numeracy-oriented learning can start from concept understanding questions first, but go to open-ended creative thinking questions and connect with real life. Although there is no research that states the percentage of creative thinking skills in solving numeracy problems, this ability is important in solving numeracy problems.

This study is limited to the number of subjects in only one school, so it does not represent the results at the national level. In addition, this research is limited to qualitative descriptive results describing the level of students' creative thinking skills in solving numeracy problems. Future research should expand by adding research subjects from schools in various regions to get a nationally representative picture of creative thinking skills in solving numeracy problems. Future research is recommended to use other approaches that can determine the relationship of various factors, such as quantitative or mixed methods. It can also be research to develop more diverse instruments to enrich the results of the study.

The researcher would like to thank the educational institution where the research took place and the Assembly of Basic and Secondary Education and Non-Formal Education of the Muhammadiyah Bangka Belitung Regional Leadership for supporting publication funds, and Muhammadiyah Bangka Belitung University for supporting research collaboration with other institutional partners.