Assessing the effect of education in acquiring general problem solving skills to second and fourth grades students in elementary schools

IV ABSTRACT Assessing The Effect of Education in Acquiring General Problem Solving Skills to Second and Fourth Grades Students in Elementary Schools. In this research, it was aimed to assess the effect of structured and unstructured problem solving education programs in acquiring general problem solving skills to second and fourth grades students in elementary schools. The sampling population of the research constituted of 96 students, 48 males and 48 females, among the students attending to second and fourth grades of Nazım Akcan Elementary School in City of Ankara. Of the sampling population selected randomly, 32 children participated to Experiment 1 (structured education group), 32 children participated to Experiment 2 (unstructured education group), and finally 32 children participated to Control Group. During the research, the pattern with pretest-posttest control group was used. For the experimental operation, "Structured and Unstructured Problem Solving Education Programs" were utilized. Within the framework of these programs, while the experiment groups applied education programs, which continued two days in a week during 12 week period, each of them lasted for 45-50 minutes, and reached total of 24 sessions. The control group was not given any education during the same period of time. In order to get information on children and their families who participated in the research, 'Tersonal Data Form" was used. To measure the general problem solving skills of the children, "Purdue Elementary Problem Solving Inventory- PEPSI", which was developed by Feldhusen, Houtz ve Ringenbach (1972), was used. A trial application was performed within the studies for adapting the Scale into Turkish and at the end of these underlying studies, it was accepted that the inventory was a valid and reliable tool for this research.During the analysis of data obtained from experimental process, Two- Way ANOVA for Repeated Measures on One Factor, Paired and Independent Samples T Test, Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Mann- Whitney U Test were used. At the end of the research; Depending on the effect of the tasks applied, an increase was detected in points of problem solving skills of second and fourth grades students in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 group, compared with their levels before the experiment and the effect of measurement with group on problem solving in second grade students was regarded as meaningful (p<01). There was not detected a remarkable difference among posttest and permanence test grades of second and fourth grades students in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 groups (p>.05), and it was determined that the effect of problem solving education, which was gained at the end of experimental study, has continued in both experimental groups. Moreover it was seen that there wasn't a remarkable difference throughout pretest-posttest grades relevant to the general problem solving skills of second and fourth grades students in Experiment 1, Experiment 2 and Control Group obtained from PEPSI inventory depending on the gender of the students (p>05). On the other hand, although it was found that there was a considerable difference between pretest-posttest grades for the general problem solving skills in Experiment 1 group attained from PEPSI inventory depending on the grades of the students (p<05), a remarkable difference was not observed between Experiment 2 and Control Groups (p>.05). Additionally it was concluded that there was a positive and meaningful relations between the grades obtained from the experiments of problem solving skills and the experiments of practicing pages of second grade students (p<01) and fourth grade students (p<05) of Experiment 1 group. Moreover, it was detected that the points that students of Experiment 1 group from practicing pages revealed significantVI difference depending on classes of the children (p< 01); but there was not such a significant difference depending on the gender of the students (p>.05). According to these results, it is clear that structured and unstructured education programs have an immense effect on problem solving skills of children. For this reason, by means of planning the activities for acquiring the children problem solving skills in any phase of the education, the prosperous environment enriched with the stimulants that children can solve and supportive experiences can be taken to develop their problem solving skills. Key Words: Problem Solving, Elementary School, Elementary Schools Students, Cognitive Development.