Group micro-creativity in online discussions: Effects of new ideas and social metacognition

This study examines how group members' new ideas and social metacognition in recent messages (micro-time context) affected a current message's micro-creativity (correct, new idea) during online discussions. Dynamic multi-level analysis was used to model statistically 894 messages by 183 participants on 60 high school mathematics topics from one of the world's largest mathematics problem solving website (www.artofproblemsolving.com). Results showed that new ideas (correct, new ideas and justifications) and social metacognition (correct evaluations and questions) in recent messages increased the likelihood of a current message's micro-creativity. Applied to practice, these results suggest that teachers might increase students' micro-creativity by encouraging them to post more correct, new ideas, justify their own ideas, evaluate others' ideas carefully, and ask more questions during online discussions.