The effects of differentiated problem solving instruction on mathematical problem solving, attitudes and creative thinking of gifted and talented learners

The aim of this study is to define the effects of differentiated problem solving instruction on mathematical problem solving performances, problem solving attitudes and creative thinking of gifted and talented learners. A pretest-posttest design was used in the experimental process of the study. As the data collection tools, Mathematics Problem Solving Attitude Scale, Torrance CreativeTthinking Test and Problem Solving Achievement Scale developed by the researcher himself were administered. Data collection tools were administered on experiment and control groups both at the beginning and end of the study. The study was conducted in Duzce Science and Art Center on a total of 15 students; 7 students from the experiment group and 8 students from control group making up the population of the study. All students in the experiment and control group were defined as gifted by means of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. While the experiment group was provided with problem solving instruction which was differentiated by the researcher, traditional problem solving instruction was carried out in the control group. Mann Whitney-U Test and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test were used to analyze the data collected to test the effectiveness of educational processes in the study. According to the findings of the study; There are significant differences between the pretest and posttest scores of the students in the experiment group instructed by differentiated problem solving in favor of the posttest in problem solving achievement test, mathematics problem solving attitude and creative thinking test. There are significant differences between the experiment group instructed by differentiated problem solving instruction and the control group in favor of the experiment group in the posttest scores of problem solving achievement test and creative thinking test. There isn't a significant a difference between the experiment group and the control group in the posttest scores of mathematics problem solving attitude scale. Key words: Differentiated instruction, Gifted and talented, Mathematics problem solving, Creative thinking, Attitude