A sample study on synectics activities from creative thinking methods: creativity from the perspective of children

Abstract

The study was derived from an action research on the use of synectics in creative thinking methods in science and technology teaching. There were three main application steps in the action research, which was designed to help students in gaining creative thinking skills. In the research, which had lasted for one teaching semester, the teacher firstly fulfilled two different applications to make the students get used to the synectics technique. First of these applications was to redefine the concept of creativity. This was followed by the activity of designing a dynamometer. In the third stage, these students were asked to develop a creative project in three or four-person groups in one semester. The researcher continued synectics activities with the project group one by one in the same period. In the redefinition of the concept of creativity, which was the first stage of the action research, synectics methods were used.

The research was made along the moment and action unit, which is the second unit of 7^th grade science and technology class, in 2009-2010 teaching year. The population of the research was composed of 43 seventh graders in a public school in Istanbul.

In the research, in which the students define the concept of creativity, “making the strange familiar” method (Hummell, 2004), which is one of the two basic implementations and is composed of six stages, was used. The students reached their own definitions of creativity at the end of this process, which started with building direct analogies and ended with creating original end-products. It was seen that the students began to see creativity in a different way and to perceive it as a process at the end of the synectics applications, rather than just an activity aiming at creation of an original product.