Investigating scientific creativity in science education in terms of neurophysiological approach

It has been revealed by many studies that scientific creativity in science education is significant to construct scientific knowledge and to make it more functional. The examination of the increase in scientific creativity skills has been carried out by various qualitative and quantitative indirect measurement methods such as pre-test, post-tests by questionnaires or surveys. The EEG method, which monitors brain activities and is quite common in neurophysiology studies but not yet included in educational research in a broad manner, offers a higher accuracy and a direct measurement tool. In this thesis, it is aimed to examine students' levels of scientific creativity during the implementation of developed convergent and divergent based activities via EEG method in addition to scientific creativity scale and problem-solving scales. Kaufman creative fields scale was also used for determining the sample. Divergent thinking-based activities were also prepared using the creativity strategies specified in the CORT-4 Thinking Program developed by Edward de Bono. The design of the study is case study. In the process of developing activities, document analysis and interview techniques were used. In the implementation process, data were collected by EEG method from the study group determined by criterion sampling in three schools in the Aegean Region; data were analyzed by qualitative analysis and statistically. When the results are evaluated, it is seen that the CoRT program has a positive effect on increasing scientific creativity. It was found that the increase in the amplitude value of the participants' brain wave data was higher in activities based on divergent thinking, but there was no statistically significant difference. It is foreseen that the results of this study will provide more supportive data by using the neurophysiological measurement and assessment method of the effect of convergent and divergent thinking-based activities on scientific creativity. In addition, it is aimed that this study is an essential study in which scientific creativity is examined with neuroscientific methods and it will be encouraging to conduct collaborative studies with the discipline of neuroscience in educational research.