Examining the relationship between secondary education students' reflective thinking skills for problem solving and innovative thinking skills

This study was conducted to determine whether there is a relationship between reflective thinking and innovative thinking skills of secondary school students. In the research, relational screening model, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was used and the study group consists of 427 students studying in the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades of a Science High School and an Anatolian High School in the central district of Afyonkarahisar province. Data were collected with the "Reflective Thinking Skills Scale for Problem Solving" and "Innovative Thinking Skills Scale". Descriptive statistics, t test, anova test and correlation analyses were used in the analysis of the data. According to the analysis results obtained, it was found that the average of the reflective thinking skills of the secondary school students for problem solving was at the level of "rarely" and the average of their innovative thinking skills was at the level of "I agree". The reflective thinking skills of the secondary school students did not show significant difference according to gender; However, it was found that it differed significantly according to age and school type variables. It was found that the innovative thinking skills of secondary school students did not differ significantly according to gender and school type variables; however, it differed significantly according to age variable. It was observed that there was no statistically significant relationship between reflective thinking and innovative thinking skills of secondary school students. No significant relationship was found between reflective thinking skills for problem solving and innovative thinking skills in gender groups, age groups and school type groups. Suggestions were developed in line with the findings obtained at the end of the research.