Investigation of the effect of creative problem solving modules enriched with the history of science on critical thinking, creativity and problem solving skills of 5th and 7th grade students

Although problem-solving, creative thinking, and critical thinking are crucial skills that are emphasized in the 21st century, students often lack proficiencyinthese skills. For this reason, a matched control group quasi-experimental researchdesign is used in this research to investigate the impact of Creative Problem- Solving Modules Enriched with the History of Science on the critical thinking, creative thinking, problem identification, and problem-solving skills of the 5thand 7th-grade students. The sample of the study is consisted of 182 students intotal. There are 94 5 th graders(46 and 48 students in the experimental and control groups, respectively), and 88 7 th graders(43 and 45 students in the experimental and control groups, respectively). . In the experimental groups Creative Problem- Solving Module was applied for 10-weeks, , while control groups followedactivities from the main textbook prepared on the basis of the Ministry of National Education's 2018 Science curriculum. Data were collected using the ProblemSolving Analysis Scale (P-SAP), Creative Thinking Test, and ThinkingDifficulties Test. Data were analyzed with the analytical rubric, independent samples t-test, and ANCOVA. Results revealed statistically significant differences(p<0.05) between the 5th and 7th-grade experimental groups and their respectivecontrol groups considering their critical thinking, creative thinking, problemidentification, and problem-solving skills. There were also differences consideringgrade levels in general that the 7 th graders had improved more. They had better scores of problem-solving skills while the 5 th graders were better in problemdefinition skills. Yet the 5 th graders were better in the discussion sub-dimensionof critical thinking. Lastly, the findings of the study suggest that the sole use of themain textbook is insufficient in fostering the development of critical thinking, creative thinking, problem identification, and problem-solving skills. KEYWORDS: Critical thinking, Problem-solving, Problemidentification, Creative thinking, The history of science, Middle school student.