Abstract
Up until now, there have been several different viewpoints on creativity in general and creativity in the science field in particular. Furthermore, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education is increasingly successful and widespread around the world; however, few studies on its impact on scientific creativity exist. As a result, research on the influence of STEAM-based curriculum on students’ scientific creativity is critical. Elementary school students were chosen to be investigated in this research, and the main topic of the STEAM-based curriculum was about a house-shaped money-saving tube with the concept of lock science, which was developed and created by the authors’ team. This research produced two phases of courses: Lock Science Courses (2 weeks) and STEAM-based courses (2 weeks). In this study, sixty-six elementary students from two separate courses were divided into two groups: control and experimental. This research used a counterbalanced design. The control group took Lock Science Courses first and then STEAM-based courses, while the experimental group did the opposite. As a pretest and posttest, students in both groups were asked to complete the “scientific creativity test” (Cronbach’s α, 0.87). The findings of the paired t-test study indicate that both the control and experimental groups have shown significant improvement in their scientific creativity. However, only the fluency and flexibility components of scientific creativity (consisting of fluency, flexibility, and originality) showed considerable development, whereas the originality component remained unchanged. This research also found that after engaging in a STEAM-based curriculum, there was no substantial difference in scientific creativity between males and females. Further discussion is provided.
Highlights
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2019a) study on the Future of Education and Skills 2030 initiative, creativity is one of the most significant and necessary factors in generating new value and seeking solutions to difficult challenges and it is becoming an increasingly important aspect to ensure sustainable development (Said-Metwaly et al, 2018)
This study aimed to explore the influences of STEAM-based curriculum on the scientific creativity of elementary school students
There are two main research questions in this study: “which kind of sequence of the course stage design has the remarkable impact on improving scientific creativity of elementary school students” and “is there a discrepancy in the effects of the STEAM-based curriculum on various genders after they participated in the study.”
Summary
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2019a) study on the Future of Education and Skills 2030 initiative, creativity is one of the most significant and necessary factors in generating new value and seeking solutions to difficult challenges and it is becoming an increasingly important aspect to ensure sustainable development (Said-Metwaly et al, 2018). According to Meador (2003), someone who has learned to think creatively while working with scientific tasks is able to apply these skills in other ways. There are several approaches to creativity, there are mainly four elements of creativity as observed in most of the prior research. They are action, production, disequilibrium, and sensitivity to a problem. Numerous scholars and educators around the world believe that creativity is one of the goals of education and that it is vital for the future (Shi et al, 2017; Suyidno et al, 2019)
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