Abstract
This paper presents the outcomes of teaching an inventive problem-solving course in junior high schools in an attempt to deal with the current relative neglect of fostering students' creativity and problem-solving capabilities in traditional schooling. The method involves carrying out systematic manipulation with attributes, functions and relationships between existing components and variables in a system. The 2-year research study comprised 112 students in the experimental group and 100 students in the control group. The findings indicated that in the post-course exam, the participants suggested a significantly greater number of original and useful solutions to problems presented to them compared to the pre-course exam and to the control group. The course also increased students' self-beliefs about creativity. Although at the beginning of the course, the students adhered to 'systematic searching' using the inventive problem-solving principles they had learned, later on they moved to 'semi-structured' and heuristic problem solving, which deals with using strategies, techniques, rules-of-thumb or educated guessing in the problem-solving process. It is important to note, however, that teaching the proposed method in school should take place in the context of engaging students in challenging tasks and open-ended projects that encourage students to develop their ideas. There is only little benefit in merely teaching students inventive problem-solving principles and letting them solve discrete pre-designed exercises.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 657-679 |
Number of pages | 23 |
Journal | Instructional Science |
Volume | 41 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jul 2013 |
Keywords
- Creativity
- Heuristics
- Problem solving
- Teaching
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- Developmental and Educational Psychology