Investigation of the effects of mathematics-centered stem activities on students `creative thinking skills and student opinions

Authors : Betül KÜÇÜKDEMİR, Ümran DÜZEN

Pages : 25-42

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Publication Date : 2022-03-30

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The aim of this study is to examine the effect of mathematics-centered STEM activities on students` creative thinking skills and to determine student views on this topic. In the research, quantitative and qualitative methods were used together. The quantitative part of the research consists of two groups of pre-test-post-test, the experimental-control group of quasi-experimental design, and the qualitative part of the case study design. The study, a province in the 2018-2019 academic year in the eastern Black Sea region of Turkey was carried out with students in two different classes in the first semester of 6th grade who are studying in public schools. Torrance Creative Thinking Test insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(TCTT); was applied to the experimental and control groups at the beginning of the study. STEM activities prepared by the researcher were applied to the experimental group students for seven weeks, while the control group students were taught a course in accordance with the current curriculum. STEM activities prepared by the researcher were applied to the experimental group students for seven weeks, while the control group students were taught a course in accordance with the current curriculum. At the end of the term, TCTT was applied to the groups as a post-test and eight students who were selected voluntarily from the experimental group were interviewed. The data obtained from the TCTT were analyzed with a statistical program. It was concluded that the change in the pre-tests of the TCTT was found significant in the verbal category, while there was no significance in the change in the figural category. Content analysis was conducted for the interviews with the students and it was concluded that STEM activities contributed to the creative thinking of the students according to the students` opinions.
Keywords : STEM, STEM activities, creative thinking