The effect of design thinking process as a problem solving method on students' functional thinking and creativity skills

The aim of this study is to systematically realize designs to solve students' daily life problems with the idea of a design-thinking process, which is a problem-solving process. For this purpose, 6th grade students were studied in a secondary school in Istanbul. First, a pilot study was conducted. The pilot application aimed to familiarize students with the design-thinking process. Following the pilot application, the Functional Thinking Test (FDT) was administered to the students as a pre-test to measure their functional thinking skills, and the Mathematical Creativity Scale (MYO) was administered to the students as a pre-test to measure their creative thinking skills. During the application process, students used the determined TOD tools. At the end of the application, the Functional Thinking Test (FBT) and the Mathematical Creativity Scale (MYO), which were applied to the students as a pre-test, were re-applied as a post-test. Interviews were held with the experimental group students. Research data were analyzed by content analysis method. With the data collection tools used, the effect of the design thinking process on students' functional thinking skills and mathematical creativity skills was questioned. The results of the study show that courses in which the design thinking process h is used as a problem-solving method make positive contributions to students' functional thinking skills and creative thinking skills, and also increase their interest in mathematics lessons.