The Contribution of Learning Outcomes for Listening to Creative Thinking Skills

Ebru Aldig,Ayla Arseven

doi:10.5539/jel.v6n3p41

Abstract

This study aims to examine teacher’s opinions on the contribution of learning outcomes for listening defined in the Ministry of National Education’s Turkish course curriculum for the 6th, 7th and 8th grades to the development of creative thinking skills. Mixed methods research design was adopted in the study. As the quantitative part of the study, a questionnaire titled “Assessment of learning outcomes for listening” was prepared by the researcher and administered to 150 Turkish teachers working at 35 different schools. Interviews were held with 13 teachers about the contribution of learning outcomes for listening to the development of creative thinking skills. The quantitative data obtained from the interviews were analyzed using the content analysis method. The analysis was conducted using frequencies, arithmetic means and the Chi-Square test.The findings of the study revealed that the learning outcomes for listening defined in the secondary Turkish course curriculum contributed to the development of creative thinking skills of students. The gender, seniority, alma mater and educational background of the teachers did not change the results. As a result of the interviews, four categories were identified: “listening outcomes and creativity”, “creative thinking”, “readiness level of students” and “development of thinking skills”.

Highlights

A curriculum based on constructivism is designed in a way to ensure permanent learning and to develop high level cognitive skills (Şaşan, 2002)
The following categories were identified as a result of the interviews held with the teachers about their opinions on the contribution of listening outcomes defined in the Turkish course curriculum for the 6th, 7th and 8th grade students to the development of creative thinking skills:
The findings of this study show that the opinions of Turkish teachers about the contribution of listening outcomes defined in the Turkish course curriculum for 6th, 7th and 8th grade students to the development of creative thinking skills do not change depending on gender, seniority, alma mater and educational background

Summary

Introduction

A curriculum based on constructivism is designed in a way to ensure permanent learning and to develop high level cognitive skills (Şaşan, 2002). The way to understand this is to examine the relationship between creative thinking skills and the learning outcomes for listening defined in the guidebooks. 6.0% showed a high level of agreement with the contribution of outcomes to the relevant skills, while 45.3% showed a very high level of agreement. We show that 44.5% of the teachers with an undergraduate degree showed a high level agreement with the contribution of these outcomes to creative thinking skills, while 48.9% showed a very high level agreement. The results of the Chi-Square test conducted to determine whether there is a difference between the opinions of Turkish teachers on the contribution of listening outcomes to the development of CTS based on the educational background of the participants show that there is no significant difference in the opinions based on the educational background (χ2(4)=.504, p>0.05)

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Conclusion