The purpose of this study is to try to gain a deeper understanding of teachers' views on how teaching should be designed to promote creative mathematical reasoning in problem-solving. This will be examined on the basis of the following two questions: What opportunities in problem solving teaching can students use conceptual as well as procedural knowledge in order to develop a creative reasoning? And what opportunities for developing a creative reasoning are there in problem solving teaching? The teachers´ lessons were observed to answer the questions. Interviews of the teachers were conducted to supplement the observations and get a picture of their knowledge of the creative reasoning.

Previous studies show that students rarely use a creative reasoning because teaching materials and examinations do not give students the opportunity to do so. Instead the students tend to use more imitative reasoning which is not built on deeper knowledge but is based on memorizing information. Therefore, it becomes relevant to investigate what opportunities classroom activities give students to make use of a creative mathematical reasoning. This study concludes that students are given a limited opportunity to use creative mathematical reasoning. Students can use both conceptual and procedural knowledge during the teacher-led teaching. The type of teaching that requires students to use creative reasoning is lacking. From interviews of the teachers, it emerges that the teachers do not know about the different types of mathematical reasoning. This may explain why students rarely need to use a creative reasoning that is based on a deeper understanding of the lessons learned on problem solving.