İlkokul 3. Sınıf Öğrencileri için Geliştirilen Düşünme Becerileri Programının Öğrencilerin Yaratıcılıklarına Etkisinin İncelenmesi*

Year 2019, Volume: 16 Issue: 1, 19 - 47, 01.04.2019

Kader Arkan Sezgin Zeliha Nurdan Baysal

Abstract

DOI: 10.26650/hayef.2019.19008

Araştırmanın amacı ilkokul 3. sınıf
öğrencileri için geliştirilen ‘Düşünme Becerileri Programı’nın yaratıcı düşünme
becerisine etkisini belirlemek ve geliştirilen programın niteliğini;
yaratıcılığın akıcılık, esneklik, ayrıntılama ve orijinallik boyutlarına
etkililiği açısından değerlendirmektir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda çalışma; nicel
boyutunda ön test-son test tek grup yarı deneysel model, nitel boyutunda ise
eylem araştırması şeklinde karma yöntem olarak kurgulanmıştır. Araştırmanın
çalışma grubunu ilkokul 3. sınıfta öğrenim gören 37 öğrenci oluşturmaktadır.
Araştırmanın nicel kısmında yaratıcılık düzeylerinin belirlenmesinde ölçme
aracı olarak Torrance Yaratıcılık Testi Şekilsel Form kullanılmış, nitel
kısmında ise yaratıcılık boyutlarındaki gelişimin ayrıntılı olarak
incelenmesini sağlamak amacıyla öğrenci etkinlik çalışma kâğıtları, öğrenci
öz-değerlendirme formları, odak grup görüşmesi ses kayıtları ve araştırmacı
günlüğü kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın sonucunda, ‘Düşünme Becerileri
Programı’nın öğrencilerin yaratıcı düşünme becerilerini geliştirdiği sonucuna
ulaşılmıştır. 

Cite this article as: Arkan Sezgin, K.,
Baysal, Z. N. (2019). Examining the effects of thinking skills program
developed for the primary school 3rd-grade students on their creativity levels.
HAYEF: Journal of Education, 16(1); 19-47. 

Keywords

Düşünme, düşünme becerileri, yaratıcı düşünme, yaratıcılık

Examining the Effects of Thinking Skills Program Developed for the Primary School 3rd-Grade Students on Their Creativity Levels

Abstract

DOI: 10.26650/hayef.2019.19008

This research aimed to identify the effects
of Thinking Skills Program developed for the 3rd-grade students on their
creative thinking skills and examine its effectiveness in the factors of
creativity. To this end, the study used a mixed design of pretest-posttest
quasi-experimental design in which quantitative data were collected and action
research in which qualitative data were collected. The study group consisted of
37 primary school third-grade students. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking
Figural Form was utilized as the instrument to measure their creativity levels
in the quantitative part of the study, and in the qualitative part of the
study, student activity work sheets, student self-evaluation forms, focus group
interview voice records and the researcher’ log were used to examine the
improvement in creativity factors. The study concluded that the Thinking Skills
Program increased the students’ creative thinking skills.

Cite this article as: Arkan Sezgin, K.,
Baysal, Z. N. (2019). Examining the effects of thinking skills program
developed for the primary school 3rd-grade students on their creativity levels.
HAYEF: Journal of Education, 16(1); 19-47. 

Keywords

Thinking, thinking skills, creative thinking, creativity

References

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• Extended Summary With thinking having been explored as an acquirable skill, many definitions have been made to thinking skills and necessary skills to teach thinking have started to be listed. In general, “creative thinking”, “problem solving”, “decision making” and “critical thinking” skills are examined within the scope of thinking skills (Karsantık, 2016; Özden, 2010; Yaman and Yalçın, 2005). Creativity, which is the subject matter of this research, includes the skills of being sensitive to problems, fluency (ability to produce many ideas and associations), flexibility (ability to produce different ideas about the same stimulus and use different approaches), originality (ability to produce new, unusual and rare ideas), elaboration (ability to process and improve a given simple stimulus in a detailed and elaborate manner), and the ability to re-describe (perceiving or describing a given way different from the usual, established one) (Torrance and Goff, 1989; in Öncü, 2003). All these skills are the factors of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, and the test was used as the instrument of this research. What is expected from a contemporary educator is to ensure that creative thinking skills are developed in individuals. Hence, an educator should accept their students as persons with a personality, encourage them to behave freely, act as a role model for them, constantly renew themselves, excite their students, exhibit a loving personality, and transmit their knowledge in a confident and easily understood way (Emir, Erdoğan and Kuyumcu, 2007). This is the reason why creative thinking skills in education programs in our country are among the skills that need to be developed. Based on the findings of research which explored the idea that students’ thinking skills should be developed at early ages (Sungur, 1997; Karakuş, 2000; Ersoy and Başer, 2009), a “Thinking Skills Program” was prepared for primary school students, and this research was planned with the 3rd-students. This research aimed to identify the effects of the Thinking Skills Program on creative thinking skills and examine the quality of this program for its effects on the factors. To this end, the sub-objectives of the research are as follows: To what extent does the Thinking Skills Program affect creative thinking? What is the effectiveness of classroom applications aiming to improve creative thinking skills in the development of the creativity factors? Method The mixed method was used in the research aiming to identify the effects of the Thinking Skills Program prepared by the researcher on students’ creative thinking and its effectiveness in the factors of creativity. The “convergent parallel mixed design” was preferred in the research for identifying how the Thinking Skills Program affected students’ creative thinking skills and determining the program’s quality in terms of creativity. The research design included a pretest (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking Figural Form A) on the experimental group, the experimental procedure with the Thinking Skills Program, and a posttest (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking Figural Form B) respectively. Accordingly, the dependent variable of the research is creative thinking skills while its independent variable is the Thinking Skills Program. The qualitative part of the study used the work sheets applied for data collection, records of the focus group interviews performed with the students, activity evaluation forms and the researcher’s log. Convenience sampling of purposive sampling methods was used in the research. In the experimental part of the study, 37 third-grade students formed the study group. For the qualitative part of the study, work sheets and evaluation forms were collected from 37 students who were selected with purposive sampling, and the qualitative part was continued with six focus students who would ensure that more detailed information could be obtained on the research. To select the students for the focus group interview, typical case sampling was used taking into consideration of the opinions of classroom and branch teachers of the participant students. To sum up the characteristics of the study group, there are 17 girls and 20 boys (37 in total) in the study group; 35 students were born in 2008 and 2 of them were born in 2009. Findings, Conclusion and Discussion According to the results of the related group t-test performed for the first objective, the pretest and posttest results of the 3rd-grade students’ (n=37) creative thinking levels differed significantly (p<.01). Experimental group’s pretest arithmetic mean was calculated to be 23.04, standard deviation to be 9.36 whereas its posttest arithmetic mean was calculated to be 56.62, standard deviation to be 16.81. It can be accordingly concluded that the Thinking Skills Program improved creative thinking skills of the students in the experimental group. Fluency, which is one of the factors of creative thinking, is defined as the ability to produce many ideas and associations. The fact that students answer the questions in the activity work sheets fluently within the activity period provides data on the level of their fluency skill. Based on the findings obtained with the document review of the activity work sheets for fluency, it can therefore be said that the students had increased their ability to produce ideas and associations as they gained experience. Flexibility, which is another factor of creative thinking, is defined as producing different ideas about the same stimulus and using different approaches. The level of students’ ability to produce different ideas during the activity period provides data about their flexibility skill. It was therefore concluded from the findings obtained with the document review of the activity work sheets for flexibility that the students’ flexibility levels in the first activities were lower than in the next activities. Efforts of the students who tried to produce different ideas during the activity to complete the activity, even if not an extraordinary one, in the first activities increased their fluency scores but did not contribute their flexibility. Elaboration, which is another factor of creative thinking, is defined as the ability to process and develop a given simple stimulus in a detailed and elaborate way. Students’ ability to process the stimuli in detail and elaborately during the activity provides data about the elaboration skill. It was therefore observed in the light of the findings obtained with the document review of the activity work sheets for elaboration that the students’ elaboration levels in the first activities were lower than in the next activities. Increase in students’ ability to process given simple stimuli after the fifth activity gives rise to the thought that they did not have the chance to elaborate and detail since they had had higher concerns about getting the task before the end of the activity, quick thinking and finding extraordinary answers. It can be said that elaboration was more resistant than the factors of fluency and flexibility. Originality, another factor of creative thinking, is defined as producing new, unusual and rare ideas. The ability of students to produce unusual ideas within the duration of the activity provides data on their originality skill. According to the findings obtained with the document review of the activity work sheets for originality, it can be concluded that the improvement of the originality skill was quite resistant compared to other factors. In the light of all the findings, the research results and discussion are given under two main headings. It was concluded that the Thinking Skills Program increased the students’ creative thinking skills. This finding shows that programs reinforcing the creative thinking contribute to the improvement of creativity. It is observed in the literature that several educational designs have been applied to enhance the creative thinking skills (Dere ve Ömeroğlu, 2018; Gülhan ve Şahin, 2018; Sarmaşık-Kaya, 2018; Yuvacı ve Dağlıoğlu, 2018; Sönmez, 2016; Benlliure, 2013; Cheung, 2013; Kurtuluş, 2012; Biber, 2006; Barak ve Mesika, 2007; Yaman ve Yalçın, 2005; Karakuş, 2000). The fact that these studies have been conducted on the preschool, primary, secondary, high schools and university gives rise to the thought that it was aimed to provide all educational levels with the creative thinking skills. The research studies conducted by Biber (2006) and Sönmez (2016) measuring primary school students’ creative thinking skills with Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking found a significant difference between the creative thinking skills scores. The fact that a significant difference was observed between the pretest and posttest scores of the students in this research coincides with the research findings achieved by Biber (2006) and Sönmez (2016). According to another result, the students’ fluency scores were higher than their scores of other factors. Furthermore, it was concluded that the levels of fluency and flexibility was higher than the levels of elaboration and originality. This finding is in line with the results of the research carried out by Özkan (2016). In the study carried out by Özkan (2016) examining the preschool students’ creativity levels and the opinions and practices of the teachers about creativity development and preschool educational program, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking Figural form A was applied to the students and the Creativity Development and Practices Teacher Interview Form was applied to the teachers. The findings of that study showed that the students were on good levels in terms of fluency and elaboration but on moderate levels in terms of flexibility and originality. The finding that the highest scores were obtained in fluency in this research is similar to those of Özkan (2016). It was found in this study that the Thinking Skills Program increased the students’ creative thinking skills. According to another result, the students’ fluency scores were higher than their scores of other factors. This study concluded that the levels of fluency and flexibility was higher than the levels of elaboration and originality. The following recommendations can be made in the light of the research results: Program development studies for a thinking skills course to be taught in primary schools can be carried out by the Ministry of National Education. Researchers can prepare programs aiming to improve creative thinking skills of primary school students and investigate their effects. Improvement levels of creative thinking skills can be compared through creativity intervention programs for different age groups. Programs can be developed to ensure improvement of creative thinking in elaboration and originality.