Determining the level of creative problem solving skills and critical thinking skills of gifted students at primary schools

XIX. and XX th centuries are known to be a milestone for the humanity in terms of the inventions made in these centuries. There has been a number of breakthroughs and great results have been found not only in sciences, and mathematics but also in social sciences.The role of the education that gifted students receive has contributed to the achievement of these results in science, mathematics, and social sciences. Thanks to the supreme power of their intuitions, problem solving skills, and different perspectives, a great number of questions which required creativity have been solved.The developments in the business world have led to an increase in the professions related to mathematics. That?s why the knowledge of science and mathematics has become more important for the students in today?s world. The students who show great performance in mathematics form a big potential for the development of society.Thanks to this work, it is believed that1.In formal educational institutions, the gifted students will be able to improve their skills regarding their creative problem solving and critical thinking skills.2.The math-gifted students? problem solving and critical thinking skills that they already have will be defined.3.The gifted students, who play an important role in the future of our country, bring new perspectives to the country by having them master high order thinking skills.The aim of this study is to determine the level of creative problem solving and critical thinking skills of highly gifted students. This survey is carried out with 64 highly gifted students in total, 32 students from 6th grades and 32 students from 7th grades. They were asked to complete a mathematical test which defined their giftedness in mathematics, a criterion which assesses their problem so.As one of the results of this study, a huge improvement in the students? problem solving and critical thinking skills has been observed. Relating to this, it has been seen that students? critical thinking skills are better than problem solving skills.