The purpose of this study is to develop and implement an alternative elementary science curriculum to enhance creative problem solving abilities. The curriculum consisting of three main elements was developed. The three elements are content knowledge,...
The purpose of this study is to develop and implement an alternative elementary science curriculum to enhance creative problem solving abilities. The curriculum consisting of three main elements was developed. The three elements are content knowledge, process knowledge and creative thinking skills. The curriculum was validated by more than 10 science educators, scientists, and curriculum specialists.
In order to implement the curriculum, three lessons for 5th grade were developed and taught by a problem-based-learning(PBL) method in an experimental group during the second semester. For the comparison group the ordinary lesson based on the 6th national science curriculum was taught by the same science teacher during the same period.
Performance assessment was developed and used for the pre and post test. Two-way ANOVA, and T-test were used to check whether there are any significant differences between the gains of scores(pre-post test) of the two groups.
The results of the test showed that the experimental group increased significantly in the total creative thinking problem solving skills, but the comparision group did not.