Second-Year College Students’ Scientific Attitudes and Creative Thinking Ability: Influence of a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Chemistry Laboratory Course

Abstract

This research examined the effects of a problem-based learning (PBL) chemistry laboratory course for second-year college students (N = 20) on students’ scientific attitudes with an emphasis on their creative thinking abilities. The findings were contrasted with a traditional laboratory course (N = 26) to elucidate any differences in the influence of the courses. Only female students participated in the study which was conducted in a private university for women in Korea. A 20-item Scientific Attitudes Questionnaire administered to both groups as a pretest and a posttest revealed that there were significant changes in criticism, cooperativeness, and creativity at the end of instruction only among students in the PBL course. The posttest scores of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking to gauge students’ creative thinking ability were significantly higher for the students in the PBL course on all three dimensions. The research suggests that PBL laboratory courses in chemistry have great potential to positively change students’ scientific attitudes towards learning chemistry and enhance their creative thinking abilities.