Creative problem-solving studies in the science and art center: An action research

The purpose of this research is to determine how creative problem-solving studies can be carried out within the scope of biology lessons with gifted and talented students attending science and art center, to examine the development of students' creative problem-solving skills and the relationship between creative problem-solving styles and emotional intelligence. In the research, an action research design that one of the qualitative research models was used. The research was carried out in two stages, a pilot and the main study. The study group was selected by gifted and talented students studying in the field of biology at Yasemin Karakaya Science and Art Center in Ankara in the 2019-2020 academic year. The biology teacher participated in the implementation process together with the researcher as an observer. Data collected to achieve the purposes of the research; personal information form, creative problem-solving practice booklet, creative problem-solving rubric, creative problem-solving styles inventory, emotional intelligence scale, semi-structured interview form, and video recordings. According to the findings obtained from the research, it was figured out that the creative problem-solving skills of students improved during the implementation of creative problem-solving-based biology lesson teaching activities. Before the application, it was figured out that the students preferred the conceptualizer style most. The distribution of creative problem-solving styles was not detected to be statistically significant. After the application, it was determined that gifted students preferred the conceptualizer style the most, the implementer style, and the generator style the least, and the distribution of creative problem-solving styles was not detected statistically significant. It was determined that there was no statistically significant relationship between the students' creative problem-solving scores and their emotional intelligence scores before the application, and their emotional intelligence scores did not differ according to their creative problem-solving styles. It was measured that there is a statistically significant and positively high relationship between the creative problem-solving scores of the students after the application and their emotional intelligence scores. It was determined that the emotional intelligence scores of the students did not differ according to their creative problem-solving styles. During the research process, it was determined that the students experienced problems in the online learning environment, the period of the workshop, the content of the materials, the failure to continue the creative problem-solving process as an entity, difficulty with divergent thinking, unwillingness to participate in group work and reach to the lesson. It has been determined that the action decisions taken to solve the identified problems are effective. It was determined that the research process was appraised positively by the students, and the process contributed to the students in terms of academic and creative improvement, the progress of questioning skills, and achieving a different perspective. The findings of this study have a number of practical implications.